ANIMANIA: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO
by Reedemption
Summary: 4 years in the making, and the debut of my OC's. An Evangelion crossover unlike anything you've see before. Bleach, Black Lagoon, Nadesico, MST3K, and more. Before the EVA pilots can try and save the world, they need to save something bigger. Much bigger.
1. Flourescent Exodus Evangelical

Disclaimer: Only the Original Characters are mine. Anyone else that may pop up belongs to whoever they belong to.

_**WITH GREAT POWER, COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY**_

_**OR**_

_**ANIMANIA: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO**_

If the world needed to be saved, whose responsibility is it to do so?

Of the billions of people on this planet, can you really point to one at random and say, "Get to it"?

Of course not, those who have the power to do something should do it. The wisest of these will seek out companions to aid them in their task, smartly choosing people who are proficient in areas of expertise which they themselves lack. The warrior seeks out an archer and a mage. The solider seeks out a sniper and a medic. The contractor seeks out the engineer and the materials consultant.

Unfortunately, the individuals who find themselves in a position to do something are very rarely those who are best suited to perform the task; whether it be a man trapped in space with no one to keep him company or sane but a couple of inorganic life forms created by the man whose place he has taken, a high school student whose overbearing father and ability to see things others can't constantly makes his life a living hell, an alcoholic gun for hire whose childhood on the streets has sculpted her pessimistic and hateful view of the world, or a whiny little kid who had been forced to drive his Dad's giant robot; time and time again, the countless masses find themselves unknowingly relaying their very survival on people they would rather not make eye contact with in a crowded room.

If the universe needed to be saved, whose responsibility is it to do so?

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Currently, the observable universe contains between 300 and 700 heptillion stars(heptillion being equal to 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000), which are themselves organized in more than 80 billion galaxies, one of which contains a small, nondescript solar system made up of nine planets circling a single star. At one time, there were ten planets circumnavigating this solar system's sun, but a cataclysmic event from eons past has seen its destruction, resulting in an asteroid belt between the fourth and fifth planets.

Either by random chance or intelligent design, the third unremarkable little planet in this unmentionable little solar system is teeming with life. Not truly intelligent life, mind you, because, despite the fact that their galaxy is only one of billions, there are those on its surface who choose to ignore the simple laws of mathematical probabilities by declaring themselves to be alone in the universe.

Taking all of this into consideration, it is most ironic to discover that the key to the destruction of the entirety of existence, from one ever-expanding edge of the cosmos to the other, resides on this

pitiful little ball of rock and water. If this was due to some grand scheme devised by a higher power, they must either have an incredibly morbid sense of humor, or are not as high and mighty as those below them believe them to be.

But all is not lost. For even though the majority of this planet's population remain ignorant of the vastness of space around them, they are also unaware of the true vastness of the space they themselves occupy. It is most fortunate that this plane of existence is not alone, for this allows the insignificant few who have the power to save the world to also not be alone. Separated by the complexities of time and space, there exists a cast of heroes, which, if brought together, might possibly be able to overcome the growing darkness that threatens to not only consume all, but to erase it.

If only there was someone who had the capabilities, knowledge, and will to bring these people together….

Thus, our story begins: with three sisters, a list of names, and a big-ass truck.

**Chapter One:**

**FLOURESCENT EXODUS EVANGELICAL**

Asuka Langley Soryu suffered from a severe case of thanataphobia. For those unfamiliar with the psychological illness, another more accessible term would be necrophobia, both referring to the fear of death or dead things. Thanataphobia, however, specifically refers to the fear of one's own death, because as the young German American girl was clearly demonstrating, she had no qualms about bringing about the ultimate destruction of others.

The mammoth blade produced a sound similar to the roar of a flying monster from a Japanese Kaiju film as it sliced through the air. Seconds later, this noise was replaced with one of solid contact, followed by contorting flesh and metal, concluded with the splashing of hundreds of gallons of red liquid and gore, as the weapon connected with and severed the leg from an enormous white robot.

The red-haired warrior, still wielding her tool of destruction, prepared for another swing, constantly fighting not only the nine winged-opponents on the battlefield, but also with the incredible forces and the very laws of physics themselves that declared an object so large should not be swung about so wildly.

She regained her footing a little clumsily before charging forward, intent on inflicting upon Units 05-13 that which she feared above all else.

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All of this was watched by helpless and terrified individuals: people who knew the pilot of the EVA Unit 02 and cared for her deeply. But on the ridge of a nearby hill, at about 5 miles distance, another pair of eyes watched these cataclysmic events unfolding through the lenses of a pair of military surplus binoculars with a slightly different set of emotions.

To tell the truth, she was a little bored.

Asuka Langley Soryu was going to run out of power. The 2nd Child was then going to be impaled through the left eye. The German pilot would then be eviscerated by the regenerated Mass-production EVA series. And then she would die. That is, if things unfolded the way they usually did. Asuka may not be killed outright by the ordeal, but experiencing your body being skewered both before and after someone guts you like a fish can't be all that great for one's psyche.

Well, bored wasn't the only state of mind she was currently experiencing.

She was also very much pissed off that she had left her good viewing apparatus at home, forcing her to pick up this primitive hunk of junk at retail. Damn things didn't even have Thermal.

It's not as though she didn't care for these people. Not at all! Just look at all the trouble they had gone through so that she could be in this part of the world at this precise time. It was just that, having studied the events leading up to Third Impact so carefully, she already knew everything that was coming next. So much so that she could tick off each individual event on her fingers.

Misato dies saving Shinji. Blah, blah, blah. The 3rd child fails, bringing about the End of the World. Yada, yada, yada. Everybody dies, giant naked Ayanami Rei in the sky. Bing-bada-boom. The girl set the binoculars down and reached for a beer from the cooler beside her on the hood of the truck. As her shirt sleeve rode up her small but well-muscled arm, the sun glinted off the black ink of her tattoo.

"Gawd, it's too fuckin' hot here…." She complained to seemingly no one in particular as she rolled the cold surface over her forehead before popping the top.

The girl was about five feet six inches tall, her long brunette hair streaked with pink highlights. Her desert camo pants were a little baggy on her slight frame, tucked into her black leather stompy boots, their chrome buckles flashing in the sun as she leisurely kicked her feet back and forth against the truck's massive grill. Taking a drink and then setting the can down beside her, she raised the optical tool back up to her eyes, setting them against the mirrored green lenses of her black-rimmed goggles. The ensemble was completed by a black Flogging Molly t-shirt, the Skull & Crossbones rather fitting when considering her FTW personality.

She sat on the hot metal surface of her vehicle, straddling the hood ornament: a strange pointed face compiled of simple shapes, which just happened to be the exact same design as was tattooed into the girl's flesh. If a person ever looked idiosyncratic as the driver of their vehicle, it was the small Rocker sitting on the hood of a desert camouflaged MRAP armored vehicle.

At twenty-two and a half tons, the twenty-seven foot long 6x6 wheel drive Buffalo mine protected vehicle usually required an operating crew ranging from 2 to 6. But there were many abnormalities concerning this particular rig: Whereas the military equivalent was topped by a highly mobile minesweeping arm ending in a 14 inch fork, this fork was almost 10 feet wide. The 7.62 x 51mm NATO ball standard armor was only present upon visual inspection. In reality, high explosive rounds would bounce off the alloyed frame like bottle rockets, causing more scorch marks than actual damage. And of course, the massive

military vehicle was usually powered by the Mack ASET AI-400 engine, producing 450 horsepower. What powered this particular metal monstrosity was both far more advanced and incredibly more powerful.

The girl continued to watch the scene unfolding with detached interest, knowing well that soon she would be needing as much strength and focus as possible when the adrenaline kicked in. Beneath her, a deep throaty roar emanated from the hood, sounding more like a threatening growl than the revving of an engine.

The girl casually reached down with one hand and patted the hood reassuringly. "Easy, Partner, it's almost time…."

The mechanical roar was silenced almost immediately, transforming into a low, ominous rumble.

The radio at her belt squawked. "Holy Diver to Death Valley Queen, Do you copy? Over." Pulling the speaker buds of her MP3 player from her ear she let it drop to her shoulder, the musical styling of Dethklok emanating from within. Even if it was only a pseudo-Metal band based off of a cartoon, she had to admit it was better than most she had heard, and all in all made for a pretty interesting soundtrack to the spectacle before her. The dark-haired girl reached for the device and thumbed the receiver switch. "This is Death Valley Queen, reading you loud and clear. Are you in position?"

"Roger that, Lil' Sis. I'm currently advancing through the south entrance of the Geofront. " A few seconds pause. "Are you drinking?"

"No." She casually slid the can away from her across the hood, as if she could hide it from the woman that was currently several miles away yet still observant enough to know exactly what was going on. "Any problems so far? I hope you didn't have to shoot too many NERV personnel…"

"Relax Gabriella. I've been aiming high or taking limb shots."

"You really shouldn't put too much stress on yourself. It won't matter in a few hours anyway."

"Just because every single person on this planet will be dead before the sun goes down doesn't mean I can get my jollies by dropping a few unknowns, kiddo…" To be perfectly honest, Elizabeth was more than a little concerned with her youngest sibling's almost complete disregard of human life. Surely this Machiavellian point of view had something to do with the steps she had taken to forge her new partnership with the third member of their party, with whom she had to admit got things done despite his overly destructive Modus Operandi. Any impromptu parenting sessions would have to be put on hold for the time being: they had a job to do.

"In about five minutes the Guardian will rescue the Third Child and they'll head for the cages. You'd better get a move on."

"Roger that Holy Diver." She knew her sister cared little for the code names she had assigned to them, but tough shit. If she was going to go along with this, certain exemptions and liberties had to be made.

Gabby wasn't very enthusiastic about watching the scene unfolding before her for the umpteenth time. In a matter of minutes, the Second Child's AT Field would fail, allowing the gargantuan lance to skewer the red mecha's skull. She had heard the German girl's screams of pain only once before, and it was not something she was too eager to hear again anytime soon.

"Are you sure we can't just go in with guns blazing and fix this now?"

Perhaps Liz had been too quick to judge her little sister's way of thinking. "You know we can't do that, Squirt. Not yet anyway."

She wasn't entirely convinced of the reply she had given. If they had rearranged certain aspects and stages of their overall plan, it was in fact possible to perform the necessary steps to prevent this world's demise. But that wasn't the way they were taught to handle things. They needed help, so they were getting it, and in a way that wouldn't greatly affect this planet's timeline. This world would end whether these people were here or not. But if they were successful in the task at hand, when they brought them back, they would do so in a manner that gave them the advantages they needed to save THEIR world for themselves. Fuck the rules. Call it a reward for a job well done.

The tiny microphone surgically implanted in her inner ear let loose its soft tones, announcing an incoming call, and her sister's voice began speaking to her at a volume impossible to detect only inches away. "We've got about ten minutes before the feisty redhead bites the big one. I'll hitch my ride to the west entrance and send the Iron Giant to fetch Fraulein."

The humorous tilt of the girl's voice told her Liz may have spoken too soon, yet she had to admit, it would be one hell of a shock to those bastards once the cogs started to turn. The tall girl's attractive face and dirty blonde hair were hidden by her black mask and faceplate, and no one paid much attention to the trooper who brought her gloved fingers up to her neck to press the surgically implanted transceiver. Like the incoming calls, the position of the device allowed her to speak softly enough to go unheard only feet away, which wasn't a problem in an underground facility being rocked by gunfire. "Get your ass over here then. It's time to rock and roll."

Gabrielle hopped down off the hood, smiling to herself as she walked around to the passenger door and climbed up. She situated herself inside the tinted cab and turned to the driver's seat. "Well big guy, it's Showtime!"

With a deafening rumble, the enormous juggernaut began to roll forward, quickly accelerating until it was thundering down the road, an unknown assailant ready to rain hell down upon the seemingly victorious execution squads.

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At the west entrance to the NERV Geofront, now completely under SEELE control, an enormous black MRAP bearing SEELE insignia rumbled to a stop, allowing a smallish figure cloaked in the black SEELE regalia to hop down from the passenger side, her goggles hidden under the facemask of the helmet, a bag of computer equipment slung over her shoulder. She didn't give her transport a second glance as it

continued down the road, instead striving smartly for the entrance, gaining immediate access after flashing her ID.

Gabby smirked wolfishly, congratulating herself on the workmanship she had pulled off with the ID badge. When she had just shown it to the guards, it had declared her to be a computer technician, as it would until she had made it a few more levels deeper into the facility. Then, merely by pressing her thumb against a different corner of the seemingly laminated card, she would now be a member of the subsequent wave of shock troops. Maybe a little later she would make herself a Lieutenant.

"Damn I'm good."

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Misato Katsuragi knew she was about to die. That was why she was able to kiss Shinji Ikari the way she did now. That was also why she made him a promise to follow through with these intimate actions up to their logical and natural conclusion as soon as he got back.

Oh, sure, she had thought about it. Every now and then she would steal a sidelong glance at her pitiful, self-deprecating roommate and idly wonder if she could boost his self esteem by screwing him senseless. Of course, knowing his twisted form of logic, any gift of physical contact may be skewed until he felt as if he was being used, but she was sure that could be resolved by having him initiate a few of her therapy sessions. And there were no problems from a legal standpoint, what with 14 being the legal age of consent in Japan. The higher-ups in NERV may not take too kindly to an EVA pilot being romantically entangled with his Guardian, but surely she'd be able to provide plenty of motivation for keeping his mouth shut.

But none of that mattered anymore. True, she had thought about it plenty of times, worked through all the angles, even had the proper lingerie picked out for when she wanted him to take the initiative. But she had never gone through with it. And now she never would. 'It's a shame really.' She thought to herself. 'A little nookie is probably just what this kid needs to fix what's wrong in that mixed-up head of his…'

So, she lied. She kissed him deeply, passionately. An adult kiss. And then she told him they would do the rest when he got back.

It wasn't _really_ a lie, she told herself. It's just that she knew right-fucking-well that she would be dead in a matter of minutes. But, if by some miracle, she were able to see Shinji again after those elevator doors closed, no matter what the circumstances, she was going to rock his world.

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Two figures concealed themselves in the shadows in a corner of the hall, listening to every single word the Major said to her young Charge. Gabby whispered back to her sister in the darkness: "Think they'll thank us afterwards?" She received a nudge in the ribs from her older sister, telling her to shut up. "But

seriously Sis, these people are psychological nightmares. And we'll already have enough pilots with the Dreadnoughts and the Aestevalis crew. Do we really need them?"

"You know as well as I do that we need all the help we can get. Just keep quiet and be ready to make your trip when the time comes. I'd rather NOT be here for the end of the World…"

Elizabeth knew they didn't need the EVA pilots _specifically _for their mission. The call to bring them was that of her second youngest sister, and her reason for suggesting they do so was one that Elizabeth herself had to partially agree with: she didn't like the way this ended. The people they had singled out for the List were all highly skilled; even so, with the tasks before them, it helped to gather those people that could greatly be helped in return. Money can't buy everything in the world, so how do you pay for the services of someone whose world is about to end?

They were in luck today. They must have observed these events a dozen times, and while they were ALWAYS the same, they didn't take place at the same time: Sometimes, Asuka met her fate after Misato hers. Sometimes it happened before. Others, the two events occurred simultaneously. Even though they had been taking every precaution against affecting this place too greatly, it was obvious that their mere presence would have consequences, let alone their intervention in things to come. However: once they made the biggest changes they had planned, their escape should still be possible before the current plane of existence become too befuddled.

"Well, if we're gonna take them, why not do it now instead of making me do my Sam Fisher impersonation?" Never having been one with much patience, Gabby was growing fairly anxious.

"I've got two good reasons for you." Elizabeth never took her eyes off the tragic couple down the hall. "First and foremost is this: Misato thinks this is the only way to save them, and she's going to fight us tooth and nail if we try to interfere. Don't forget she's still armed, and her ability to handle herself in a fight is the main reason we're bringing her too."

Elizabeth did not continue until she was prompted by her youngest sibling. "What about Reason numero dos?"

Liz held up a hand to silence her sister, not just to keep them from being heard but also to keep from having to answer, thereby escaping some ridicule for being sentimental. Reason number Three was, she really wanted to let those two have their moment of privacy together.

Presently, Major Katsuragi was pushing her necklace into the pilot's shaking hand before forcing him into the lift and sending him down to the cages below. Then, she slumped against the wall, fell to the ground, and was still.

It was time to move.

The two intruders raced down the hall, the oldest removing a composite knife from her belt, jamming it between the lift doors, and levering them open a few inches. Her sister got her fingers between them,

and straining together, forced them open, exposing the dark cavity beyond, the elevator cable still spooling away to the floors below.

After she had restored the volume of the pirated radio at her belt, Gabby quickly fitted her hands into a pair of protective gloves and flipped a switch on the side of her goggles. A soft hum told her sister that the night vision was working properly, this assumption being reinforced by the soft glow of the lenses. A slight shudder ran down the older sister's back as she considered just HOW that night vision was functioning. The radio continued its incessant garbling transmissions, not giving any thought as to whether or not they were being heard by all parties present. Unit 02 had just been liquidated. The duo shared a quick glance before turning their attention to the open elevator shaft.

"I really should be the one going down there…" Elizabeth sighed regretfully.

Gabby scoffed. "And what? Leave me to deal with Big Boobs McGee? I don't need to know a thing about Engineering to tell you that it's gonna suck trying to haul that much top-heavy deadweight back to the surface. I'll take the hostage who can still walk thank-you-very-much."

Without waiting for a reply, the small-looking girl leapt into the chasm, her hands finding easy hold of the cable, and she slid down into the darkness, the tight confines of the elevator shaft illuminated in shades of green, keeping her from being caught unawares and slamming into the roof of the car with enough force to break both her legs.

Her sister yelled into the void after her. "JUST DON'T CALL HIM A HOSTAGE!" While she had to agree with the logic Gabby had presented, she still had her doubts about sending the outspoken girl to deal with the young pilot. Or, perhaps so much time around Asuka Langley would provide a comforting familiarity when Gabby started bossing him around.

Elizabeth turned back and stood over the woman lying face down on the floor in a puddle of her own blood. Her head turned, looking upward out of the corner of her eyes, she knew she was still alive, but also that that would change momentarily. Misato had heard the entire exchange between the two, but even now, she lacked the strength to so much as move. All she could do was lay there, watch, listen, and die.

Liz knelt down and brushed a lock of purple hair out of the woman's face, her hand resting on the clammy cheek. "Don't worry Ma'am," she whispered, "We're here to help."

Misato had the faintest impression of being lifted up off the ground, draped across a pair of slender, yet surprisingly powerful shoulders, and then lateral movement towards one of the emergency lifts that would take them to the surface. Then the darkness took her, and she knew no more.

Using the Fireman's Carry, Elizabeth had to marvel at the firmness of the thigh she was holding onto, considering the other woman's living habits. The purple-haired woman's blood was soaking the back of her SEELE uniform, but she paid it little mind. She was halfway to the escape lift and the first step in their evacuation plan when she felt the heartbeat in the body draped across her neck cease. She took no pause and made no attempts at revival.

Entering the lift and pressing the button for the highest possible level, she used one hand to make sure her weapon was loaded and at the ready. The time for subterfuge was over, and the SEELE soldiers would almost certainly take note of one of their own trying to leaving the facility with the body of a high-ranking NERV official. Elizabeth smiled grimly to herself. After the genocide she had been forced to watch, she was in the mood for a little payback.

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As Gabby slid farther and farther into the Earth, the pilfered radio at her belt continued to squawk along the open SEELE frequencies, as it had all morning. The old saying was true: no news was good news.

At first it had been little more than the occasional reports coming in describing the killing to be going smoothly. Contact with the team who had run into and captured the Third Child had been lost. Two individuals sighted heading for the cages. Splashes of blood near a door confirming at least one had been hit. Then the radio had been muted while she and her sister watched the two roommates say their goodbyes. EVA Unit 02 had been confirmed dead, and the mass-production EVAs where called back to await the appearance of additional opponents. At the same time she was beginning her descent through the shaft, SEELE personnel were on their way to the destroyed monstrosity, making ready to remove the body of the pilot.

Then it got good.

"Sir, unidentified vehicle approaching checkpoint B."

"What is it Corporal?"

"I'm not sure, Sir. Checkpoints C and D let it through no problem…"

"Checkpoint C, explain yourself!"

"It looked like one of ours, Sir. Paint and markings matched…"

"Checkpoint B to Checkpoint C, was it a large 6-wheel drive vehicle?"

"Affirmative."

"Sir, I'm looking at it right now, and there's no way in hell that thing looks like one of ours. All our stuff is black, this is some sort of desert camoufla-HOLY SHIT!"

"Corporal?"

"SIR, IT JUST PICKED UP SPEED AND BURST THROUGH! FOUR MEN ARE DOWN, TWO CONFIRMED DEAD SIR!"

"What about the spike strips!"

"Sir, it just RAN OVER A TRUCK! The spike strips didn't even catch! It's like a fuckin' tank!"

"Checkpoint A, as soon as you have visual contact, open fire."

"Affirmative Sir!"

Roughly fifteen seconds passed, filled with garbled bursts of static, before a terrified voice cut in, nearly drowned out by the sounds of gunfire in the back ground.

"SIR, NO EFFECT! WE'RE HITTING IT WITH EVERYTHING WE'VE GOT AND IT'S NOT EVEN SLOWING DOWN! SIR, IT'S-"

A thunderous crash.

"Lieutenant? LUETANANT!"

"Sir, it's through Checkpoint A, heading straight for the plug recovery team. There was this big fork on the top of the thing Sir! Came down and completely _threw_ the Lieutenant's jeep. It doesn't look good Sir. It went flying off the road and rolled a couple times. It- Oh, My God…."

"Sergeant? Sergeant, what's going on!"

"IT'S STANDING UP! REPEAT, THE TRUCK IS FUCKIN' STANDING UP! IT'S RUNNING RIGHT AT US! SIR, IT IS _RUNNING _AT US! WE'RE NOT EVEN PHASING IT! JESUS CHRIST!"

More explosions, more frantic voices lost over the ripsaw of gunfire. The only voice that could be heard clearly was that of the Commander, demanding to know what was happening. Then, one more clear transmission before she slipped too far out of broadcast range.

"IT'S GOING FOR UNIT 02'S ENTRY PLUG!"

Gabby smiled widely, fighting the urge to burst out into laughter.

Suddenly, the car came into view, and she tightened her grip simultaneously with her gloves and boots, sliding to a gentle stop, landing with a muffled thud on the roof of the elevator. She quickly went about kicking in the ceiling panel and dropping through, nearly tackling the boy from behind a second before he exited the parting doors. As it was, he jumped back with a startled yell, stumbling and landing on the floor with his back up against the wall.

She should have prepared for this. This was, after all, the pivotal moment. The moment that would change everything. First contact. She should have had something ready, something profound, reassuring, and dignified. But then again, Fuck it, she had always done fine just by winging it.

"You Shinji Ikari?"

The terrified young man could only gawk at her, wondering if after all this, he was about to be killed. But how would she do it? He didn't see a gun anywhere. Absentmindedly, he nodded.

She reached down with her right hand. "Come with me if you want to live." 'Fuck me sideways, did I really just say that?' she asked herself silently.

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There were twelve of them, holding position near the hallways that lead to the main control room. Three were messing with some computer consoles, while the one with a flamethrower huddled with the others, most of them with their backs to the elevator. They must have thought the surviving inhabitants of NERV were being forced deeper into the complex, and had little to do while they waited for their superiors to arrive.

Beautiful.

Normally one to avoid violence if at all possible, the actions she had seen carried out by these people against unarmed NERV employees had been bubbling beneath the surface for a long time now. The logic that the quickest way past these trained killers was straight through only served to strengthen her resolve. Elizabeth stepped forward through the lift doors, shifting the dead weight to her left shoulder as she raised the small, turquoise weapon in her right hand, taking aim for the one closest to the middle of the group.

"HEY, ASSHOLES!"

The SEELE men looked up and, not taking the blue toy-like weapon as an immediate threat, only a third of them thought to raise their own. Liz pulled the trigger. With a sound reminiscent to a low budget Sci-Fi movie, the small-caliber round caught the man squarely in the chest, embedding itself in his armor, the force barely enough to make him stagger backwards.

For a moment, everyone paused, the men from SEELE staring at the intruder's useless weapon with amusement, the intruder staring right back as if waiting for something, the soldier who had just been shot staring idly down at his chest, a small smile spreading across his face at the thought of facing an opponent that would do more than simply beg for her life. He had just raised his weapon to take aim at her left knee when he became aware of a soft beeping emanating from the round in his lodged into his armor.

With a blinding flash and a deafening bang, the round exploded, splitting his chest open like an overripe melon. He was dead before he hit the wall behind him. With the exception of the rogue assailant, who had been prepared for the blast, everyone was either grasping at their ringing ears, or belatedly turning away from the blast in a useless attempt to shield themselves. Several were suffering from blast wounds. Those who survived this ordeal would be horrified to learn that the shrapnel they had been hit with was actually bone fragments from their unlucky comrade. In turning, the firebug exposed his back to Liz.

Perfect.

She calmly flipped a switch near her thumb from "ANTI-PERSONELL" to "ARMOR-PEIRCING", and readjusted her aim. Okay, so maybe Gabby had a point: she COULD have a little fun while doing the dirty work. Her second round punctured the back-mounted fuel tank as easily as a BB through a Pepsi can, where it struck the internal wall blocking its exit path before it too exploded.

Every surface within a twenty foot radius was sprayed with burning fuel. This included 1,250 square feet of stainles-steel flooring, one lifeless and ruined body, and eleven hapless SEELE troopers. The sounds of the crackling flames were easily drowned out by the screams of individuals experiencing their first, and last, exposure to napalm. The stench of melted nylon and burning flesh hung heavily in the air.

Shifting her burden once again, Elizabeth made her way down a side-hallway, avoiding the conflagration as she continued towards another lift, each step bring her closer and closer to the surface. Her third encounter with enemy soldiers, and she had yet to be fired upon.

She could clearly imagine the compliment she would have received had Gabby been there to see her handiwork: "Damn Sis, you are good."

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Shinji Ikari stumbled for perhaps the hundredth time as he was dragged through the hallways and stairwells of NERV, the ride in the emergency lift having taken place in silence. Well, relative silence. He had asked countless questions, all of which went unanswered by the mysterious, goggled, and surprisingly strong girl who had literally dropped into his shambled life. The last detail in this list had been confirmed during one of his rare moments of protest, when she had literally THROWN him into the lift.

"But WHO are you? What do you want with me?" More seemingly sensible questions poured out of him even as his focus shifted to the necklace clenched in his fingers. His attention divided, it caught him off guard when the newcomer actually answered responded.

The girl dressed in a SEELE uniform kept looking forward as she spoke, never slowing in her stride. "You know kid, people would like you a lot more if you didn't always act like such a whiny little bitch…" She was beginning to regret not letting Shinji reach his EVA and find it encased in Bakelite. It probably would have made him easier to handle if he thought there was nothing at all he could possible do here anymore. Then the thought of the EVA breaking free and crushing her like a bug when she abducted the pilot made her change her mind with a grimace.

She threw herself against one final door, her hand gripping the collar of his shirt tightly, and they suddenly burst out into the blinding glare of sunlight, the rush of fresh air slightly disorienting compared to the recycled atmosphere of the NERV facility. They continued running/stumbling through the forest, before reaching the paved road, where his captor was apparently meeting up with someone. An enormous 6-wheeled vehicle sat idling on the shoulder, a blonde girl in an identical SEELE uniform throwing the driver's side door open and motioning for them to hurry. Shinji was dimly aware of the scorched and dented EVA entry plug nestled in a clawed fork on the roof of the truck's body, the words "UNIT 02" clearly visible. The sickening lurch of his stomach was in no way helped by the shrieking roar from overhead as they were spotted by the enemy EVAs. The girl leading him like a dog shoved him up and into the truck.

"Is Asuka…alive?" He choked on the words trying to get them out. The muttered response from the blonde girl above him was accompanied by her pulling him inside.

"She will be…"

The young pilot found himself in a spacious cab, shoved into the back seat. Liz moved over to the passenger seat while Gabby took her place behind the steering wheel. Farther back behind the back seat, there was a bulky black mass that looked suspiciously like a body bag. The truck lurched forward, slowly picking up speed.

"But I can't leave! I made a promise! Why are you doing this?" Shinji pleaded with his mysterious captors, absentmindedly clutching the bloodstained cross tighter in his trembling hand. The words flowed without thought, without consideration of how much he feared the fight ahead.

The shorter girl with long black hair raised her goggles up onto her forehead, revealing a pair of shockingly bright, almost unnaturally, blue eyes, which she locked directly onto his own, before replying with an unwavering voice: "Because if we don't get an A on our History report, I'm getting sent to military school."

The third child could only gawk at her, unsure if he had heard her correctly. With lightning speed, the blonde girl's hand shot out and slapped her younger sister upside the head. "Damn it, Gabby! It's not like this isn't weird enough for him already without your being a smartass!"

The one named Gabby glared back at the other, rubbing painfully at the point of impact: "_FUCKIN' A!_ Gawd Liz, haven't you ever heard of alleviating a stressful situation through humor? You watch M.A.S.H., for Fuck's sake!"

"Just pay attention, the beacon's about to activate." The vehicle began to pick up speed, and Shinji could have sworn Gabby's hand never touched the shift lever. Presently, she did something with some switches on the dash, which may or may not have had some sort of effect on the strange glowing sphere that had appeared in the middle of the road up ahead. The blue swirling mass started out roughly the size of a basketball, before it began to grow. The larger it expanded, the faster it swirled, until the globe of ball lightning sat as a pulsating dome on the surface of the pavement, stretching from one edge of the highway to the other. The ground shook as the first of the Mass-Production EVAs touched down; pulling in its wings as it simultaneously began loping after its prey.

Liz didn't even seem interested in her gargantuan pursuer as she turned her own eyes to their young captive, the level of compassion in her gaze an easy match for the level of humor and sarcasm in Gabby's. "You promised Misato that you would try, but you're going to fail, Shinji. You're going to let the world end."

He could only stare in horror, all of his personal doubts and innermost fears confirmed by a complete stranger.

"But it doesn't have to be that way. We can help you save your world. But first, we need your help."

Behind them, three more EVAs had touched down, and they were approaching quickly. With each thunderous footstep, the truck came closer and closer to the mass of swirling energies.

"Help you? But how? What do you want me to do?" Shinji's mind was spinning.

The corners of Liz's mouth crept upwards in a sad smile as she answered, knowing she wouldn't be the first to put an unearthly weight upon this frightened young man's shoulders. "Help us save _ours._"

The closest EVA lunged forward, its monstrous claw about to close upon the rumbling transport, just as they plunged forth into the translucent shell. The mass of lightning and fog converged around them, seemingly drawn into the boxy device Liz had been working with on the dashboard. With a bright blue flash and a quick whiff of ozone, the dome collapsed, leaving nothing in its place but swirling clouds of dust; the EVA's outstretched hand clenching around empty air.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Please note that up until, and beyond, this work's completion, it will be subject to massive rewriting, as later installments may require more or less information being available earlier on. Also, while I have specific parts mapped out perfectly in my mind's eye, the actual sequence in which they take place may I will give notices at the beginning of chapters in case I need you to go back.

Any who…

It has come to my attention that there are some critical bastards out there who don't think I'm going to be taking this seriously. You want serious? Oh, I'll give you serious…

To Flamer: Go stick your tongue into a light fixture. You'll have the right to be such a complete dick when you yourself have a creative product you're ready to present to the world, and are brave enough to stand behind it. Although, I must admit, I'm glad my first flame EVER was so juvenile in its content, and completely lacking any reason as to WHY my story sucks.

So yeah, this is my Love Letter to the Anime genre in general, Neon Genesis Evangelion in particular, with a few other entertainment fetishes of mine thrown in for good measure. Let's see how people react now that I've finally given them something…

My apologies if I've screwed up some details concerning Neon Genesis Evangelion in its entirety. I'm doing my best to make my research concrete, and will go back to fix things should they prove necessary. The timeline of events, however, needed to be manipulated somewhat for the story overall. As did Asuka's fate after her battle with the Mass-Production Units.

Hopefully the readers who picked up on this will take it as the small piece of foreshadowing it was meant to be, as the aspects of time and space will be discussed, explored, and even sodomized to a certain degree. Besides, EoE was so messed up, it's pretty obvious it was designed with viewer interpretation and reaction in mind.

Personally, I preferred the insight I received after reading Re-Take (The thinking man's erotica). Yes, I read it. So sue me. You have to admit after the little scene with Shinji in Asuka's hospital room at the beginning of EoE, there wasn't much Studio Kimigabuchi could do to faze us.

(P.S. I'm incredibly sorry if I have offended any of you, but I just really got worked up over some of that…well, it wasn't even criticism. More like hate mail, really. Anyway, anybody out there who's decided to give this thing a chance, I thank you very much.)


	2. Death And Rebirth Then Death Again

HOOOWDY HO!

Thank you for all the reviews. I have to say that, considering all the flak I caught, I will NEVER misspell 'Misato' ever again.

As for anyone who is disappointed that I didn't give away more already, come now. Do you find out who the killer is in the first couple chapters of a mystery novel? Of course not. You flip to the end right away. Unfortunately for you, this medium doesn't give you that privilege….

Sorry about the fact that it's taken nearly a month for what I planned to be only one week of anticipation. On the plus side, the next two chapters after this have already been mapped out carefully, so once I sit down and get to it, I should be able to crank it out. And for all your unanswered questions, just bear with me for a little bit longer. I promise you won't be disappointed.

And rest assured, (if you haven't figured it out already) I plan on taking this seriously. I see no reason a crossover of the magnitude and scale I have envisioned is not possible, _NAY_, plausible. Hey, if Batman can defeat the Predator, Dracula, AND Superman, while _still_ maintaining credibility, I should be able to pull this off.

Master Beta: Darkbusterrancher

Disclaimer: Only the Original Characters are mine. Anyone else that may pop up belongs to whoever they belong to.

**DEATH AND REBIRTH. THEN DEATH AGAIN.**

Rukia Kuchiki wasn't always the greatest judge of character, and she knew you should never base your opinions of a book by its cover. But despite all of this, the shinigami couldn't help but feel as if the new transfer student was slightly older than the typical high school girl. If she had to put a concrete number with her suspicions, she would have chosen around 20. The fact that she would transfer into the school so close to the end of the year was also out of the norm.

The new girl had been introduced as Sarah Grant. She was roughly 5'10", was slightly tanned, and wore conservative glasses. Her long brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and it was somewhat difficult to peg her nationality. She bordered towards shy, rarely saying more than a few words to anyone, always with a heavy book in hand. And Rukia couldn't help the feeling that every single time she had her back turned, she was being watched. Sometimes she would turn casually, others were swift spins, yet not once had she ever caught Sarah looking up from her reading. There was something else about her too.

At first she just thought it was the girl's appetite: the girl could eat like Orihime, only with a greater ferocity. But whereas she once remembered a classmate suggesting Inoue kept here girlish figure by storing all that food in her breasts, the new girl's own assets were nowhere near as plentiful as the absent-minded redhead's plentiful assets. If she hadn't been paying such close attention, she probably would have never noticed the small flask that the new girl always poured into her drink at lunch, just as everyone around her had failed to catch on. Not that she was so strictly against the consumption of alcohol (if that's what it really was), but whatever.

It had taken a few days before Rukia could put her finger on it. It wasn't that the new girl's spiritual pressure was stronger than anyone else's, but it felt….somehow….denser. Like there were two souls residing in her body. The closest she could compare it to was the pressure emanating from a pregnant woman. But the baby's soul was far too developed. It was unsettling, to say the least. She had asked some of her fellow "gifted" classmates about this, but there seemed to be little concern overall, so she pushed it out of mind.

Things truly became interesting when the new student had been approached by Chizuru Honshō. The school lesbian had short red hair in a bob similar to Rukia's, large glasses, and a tall and slender frame. She also had absolutely NO qualms about hiding her sexual preferences from the outside world, going so far as to not only get particularly physical with poor naive little Orihime every chance she got, but to also openly proposition any member of the fairer sex she found attractive. Rukia herself had been the subject of this treatment more than once, and while she wasn't entirely sure she had understood ALL of the innuendo sent her way, she had to admit the subtle teasing could be fun, if not a little creepy. But now it was the new girl's turn.

They had been sitting outside under the trees during a break between classes when it happened. There was a general feeling of excitement hanging in the air, as summer break was less than a week away. The brunette was sitting by herself at a distance in the shade, her nose buried in a very thick book. Rukia could just make out the title after tilting her head: Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler. As Chizuru departed from the group and slinked towards her prey, Rukia wasn't the only one to cease her conversation; every girl in the group was leaning towards the point of impact to hear what happened next.

Chizuru dropped down to her knees in the grass beside the bookworm, never losing a beat as she smoothly blended a greeting with her proposition. "Hey there Cutie. I usually don't have a thing for older women, but lucky for you, I know how hard it can be to make new friends. What say you come over to my place after school?"

She merely glanced up in cursory acknowledgement before returning to her book. "With all honesty, I would _love_ to, but I don't think it would be such a good idea." The horny huntress was left undaunted.

Chizuru put on her cutest pouting look. "What's wrong? Are you involved with somebody?" Her eyes flashed with a hungry gleam. "Or are you a little nervous about trying something new? I promise I won't leave any marks. At least, not where they'll be seen…"

Sarah's eyes left her reading once again, and they too flashed with something previously unseen by all those present: it was her own look of hunger and lust, albeit far more vicious than that of the predator hovering over her. "It's just that, to be perfectly frank, I don't think you could handle me…"

To say she was surprised would have been an understatement, but Chizuru hid her look of shock well. She recovered quickly enough, motivated not too lightly by the thought of some good clean, sweaty fun within reach. All that was needed was some subtle coaxing. She turned her eyes downwards while running her hands down her sides seductively, adding a pleasant little writhing motion to her body while she did so. "Come now….I'm sure this tight little body can stand up to whatever delightful tortures you have in mind….So how about it? Up for a 24-hour petting session?"

Her ploy seemed to be working as she now had her target's undivided attention: Sarah's eyes had followed every movement of Chizuru's hands on their fun little journey. "What, just petting?" She sounded genuinely disappointed. "But if you MUST insist, I do have some ideas of my own…."

Chizuru perked up like a cat who heard a can opener. "Really! Do tell! Do tell!" She bounced on her knees while clapping her hands together. She barely saw Sarah's hand lunge out and grip her by her tie firmly, simultaneously pulling her forward till their noses were inches apart. Her gasp of surprise at the turning tables brought a fog to her captive's glasses; while the other girl's lusty breathing had the same effect on her own. "Wha-?"

She was cut off by a slender finger pressed gently against her lips. "Relax sweetie, it's just that some of my plans may not be suitable for virgin ears." She glanced over to where Rukia and her cohorts were watching with rapt attention; after everyone turned away in embarrassment, she returned her own back to the lost looking girl that had naively wandered into this trap. "Now, here's what I have in mind… First, we could-" Her voice dropped to a whisper: both to make it impossible for the pair to be overheard, and to give her a reason for breathing onto the lesbian's neck as she directed her dirty little thoughts at the questioning ear.

The one-sided conversation went on for several minutes, leaving those present to do little but wonder at what perverse techniques and creative positions were being suggested. From the way Chizuru was shifting back and forth in the grass, as well as the spreading redness in her face, it was obvious that their guesses weren't even close. At long last, she released her shaking prisoner and pulled back so as to meet her face-to-face. "Well kiddo? You up for it?"

Chizuru stared at her momentarily, blinking rapidly, before turning away with a furious blush. She was swallowing noticeably; both from embarrassment and to deal with the increased level of saliva production. "Um….I'll have to get back to you on that…." Shaking slightly, she struggled to stand on quivering legs that threatened to fail at the simple task of supporting her weight, before walking away at a brisk pace, disappearing into the bathroom where she could…collect herself. Orihime seemed as if she were about to ask her classmates what she was doing, but the sudden blush suggested she had just figured it out.

Those in attendance watched her leave before shifting their collective gaze back to the girl who had managed to out-pervert the biggest pervert in the school. She had returned to her book full heartedly. They continued to stare in shock for several moments before she noticed the distanced examination. She looked up long enough to answer their unasked questions before returning to the heavy tome once again. "What? I like to read in peace."

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The silence of the evening was shattered by what sounded like a thunderclap, the darkness pierced by a bright blue flash, and the deserted stretch of pavement was suddenly occupied by an enormous rumbling behemoth, still trailing ether streams of swirling mist from God knows where. The driver slammed on the brakes, sending the vehicle swerving sideways as it skidded to a halt. Her older sister sitting in the passenger seat activated a GPS system on the dash, while the teenage boy in the back seat trembled silently, still trying to figure out what the HELL had just happened.

One moment they were accelerating down the highway near NERV headquarters, being pursued by an enemy EVA while hurtling headlong into the mysterious blue orb. The next, they had crossed into its threshold and reality as he knew it seemed to have turned in upon itself.

The portal had been deep. Far deeper than it should have been, judging by the roughly thirty foot diameter. He wasn't sure what to expect would happen when they drove into it. Maybe they would come out the other side, still on the battlefield, and be crushed by the pursuing robot. He certainly didn't expect a spinning tunnel of flashing lights, curving and stretching off into infinity.

Then there was the sound. Strange twanging notes and rhythms, making him feel as if he were taking a bad acid trip. What the hell was it? Was this…dimension…producing such ludicrous noises as they were sent hurtling forward into the unknown? No. Glancing down, he saw that the shorter girl with goggles had put a CD into the player, smiling wide as her partner looked at her disapprovingly. They were spinning through the infinite, seemingly lacking any form of control whatsoever since she had taken her hands completely from the steering wheel, and she felt it was a good time to put on some music.

There had been no ground to speak of; just a darker wall of color that seemed to be solid as the wheels traveled over it. His feelings of nausea were only escalated by the whacked out perspective. There was no sensation of movement; they had been accelerating only seconds before, but now felt as if they were standing still, without being thrown out of their seats by the sudden braking and following inertia.

Yet, according to the fantastic array of multicolored strobe lights whipping past, they were going fast. Very fast. Too fast. All around them, the lights continued to intensify and pulse: the primary colors of red, yellow and blue, dancing about each other; the secondary colors appearing as sharp rips and tears where their parent components interacted. And there were other colors too. Colors he had never seen before. Frequencies of the light spectrum that shouldn't even exist in this world. This world. Dear God, where the Hell where they?

Then the singing began. A low, eerie melody. The driver was singing, the emotionless words made even more disturbing by the lack of emotion in her goggled eyes.

"There's no earthly way of knowing….Which direction we are going….There's no knowing where we're rowing, or which way the river's flowing….Is it raining? Is it snowing? Is a hurricane a-blowing? Bah! Not a speck of light is showing…So the danger must be growing…."

She was still looking directly forward as she sang, her voice increasing in volume, pace, and insanity as she continued, a creepy smile spreading across her face. Shinji stole a glance at the girl in the passenger seat. She did nothing but look upon her partner with incredulous astonishment.

"Are the fires of hell a-blowing? Is the grizzly reaper mowing? YES! The danger must be growing, for the rowers keep on rowing, and they're certainly not showing, ANY SIGNS THAT THEY ARE SLOWING! AHHHHHHHHHH!"

As she finished her unsettling little poem, the girl spun around in her chair, looked directly into Shinji's frightened face, and screamed. He thought he might wet himself.

And then they were out. There was a squeal of locking brakes and screeching tires as the younger of his two kidnappers arrested their rate of travel, while the older blonde in the passenger seat unclenched her fingers from the handle above the door and quickly went about fiddling with something on the dash. The driver turned her goggled eyes to take in the terrified look on his face.

"FUCK YEAH! Some ride, huh kid?" Without waiting for his response, she turned her attention to the taller girl. "Well Sis, what's the damage?"

"Other than the emotional trauma of our passenger after that little display you call humor? The Pink Floyd was bad enough. But Willy Wonka? Seriously?" The girl called Liz seemed to be genuinely worried about his level of comfort and well-being, but her concerns did little to relieve his stress, as he was still feeling pretty messed up right now.

The driver, Gabby, only harrumphed indignantly. "You're just pissed because I wouldn't play your music. Admit it: you would have had us listening to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

The other girl merely glanced at her partner before refocusing on the small glowing screen in front of her. Apparently she had been accurate in her assumption. "We're a little under a mile south of the entrance. And don't even THINK of taking full credit for getting us this close! We both know it was mostly dumb luck."

"Aw, munch my rug…"

For the second time in fifteen minutes, the blonde's hand shot out and struck her younger sister upside the head. "If you're so good, why didn't you bring us out INSIDE the hanger?"

The foulmouthed girl behind the wheel steered with one hand as she restarted up the road, her free hand nursing the new wound. "MAYBE because the place we just left is, whether we like it or not, slightly different from the one we went to! Or maybe because one slight miscalculation would have us come out in the middle of a support wall? DAMN IT! I wish you'd remember this shit! Why don't YOU try programming the jump next time?"

"Just hurry up and get us inside. We still have a lot of work to do."

Shinji once again noticed that her hand had never touched the gear shift. Looking out the windows, that was pretty much all he noticed. The headlights shining forward illuminated nothing but bare pavement and endless lines of evergreens on either side of the road. They had gone about ¾ of a mile, yet the aforementioned 'entrance' was still out of sight. He looked all around wildly as they began to slow, hoping a view of this 'hanger' might offer some clue as to where they were.

There was nothing out of the ordinary in any direction. The girl driving kept them in a straight course while the one who was obviously something of a superior punched some buttons on the first dashboard-mounted box: the one that had apparently brought them here in the first place. After all he had been through he wasn't quite sure why he was expecting something ordinary to happen. Of course he shouldn't have, as a long section of the road before them slid back upon itself, revealing a descending ramp that plunged forth into darkness.

This new path having prevented itself, the driver readjusted her grip on the wheel before pressing the accelerator, the Buffalo's thudding drop only jarring its passengers slightly as it started downward. No sooner had the roof of the truck slipped beneath the level of the road than the opening began to close again, missing the top mounted cargo by mere feet. The absolute darkness was only absolute for a split second before a series of wall mounted lights snapped on, revealing an extremely wide tunnel that continued to descend. They were about a quarter mile in and perhaps a hundred feet beneath the surface when the tunnel suddenly widened into a brightly lit room that rivaled the size of the EVA cages back at NERV.

The gigantic chamber appeared to be carved out of the Earth, and then reinforced by experts in the field structural engineering. The ceiling looked to be close to 50-feet high and excreted a field of fluorescent lights like the stalactites of a cave. The cavern itself was perhaps 200-feet wide and twice that long, with a dozen sturdy support columns aligned in two even rows, keeping the heavy roof from crushing them into dust. The place looked like it could survive a nuclear blast with ease. Shinji then realized that it had most likely been designed to do just that.

There were a dozen large objects lined up against the wall, covered with tarps. The first half, Shinji assumed them to be aircraft of some unknown design, what curves and shapes could be seen depicting an aerodynamic profile unlike anything he had ever seen in books or used against the Angels. The remainder varied in size and shape, and what could be seen caused the young pilot to greatly question the resources needed for such an armada: the treads of a massive tank and tail of an enormous helicopter were clearly discernable. They drove past the lurking masses on their left in silence, making their way across the sprawling floor space.

The middle of the floor was dominated by a large spherical machine. It was almost 30-feet across and resembled a globe with the skin peeled off, exposing the girder structure beneath. It appeared as though the numerous skeletal spheres were designed to spin within one another. A large red circle was painted on the floor around the sphere at a 60-foot radius. Thick, heavy cables ran from the base of the structure to the latter half of the covered vehicles Shinji had just noticed.

Glancing to the right, the Third Child saw an emblem painted on the wall, defaced by graffiti. White letters inside a black circle declared the name HANSO FOUNDATION. The black circle had been utilized as the O in the second word of a three word name scrawled in black spray paint, the first and last words centered above and below the second, respectively: LEGION OF DOOM.

The MRAP pulled to a stop in front of a large set of double doors, a wheeled stretcher sitting to the right, a conveyor belt disappearing into the wall on the left. Things began moving very quickly. Each of his captors leapt from their respective doors to the ground below.

While the taller blonde, Liz, ran over to the gurney by the door, the shorter girl with longish black hair jogged over to the conveyor belt and began busying herself with the control panel. A mechanical rumbling was produced from overhead, and from where he was sitting, the Third Child watched as the mechanical arm extricated itself and carefully lowered the Entry Plug onto the conveyor's tread. 'Wait…' he thought to himself. 'Who's controlling the arm?'

Presently, the taller of his captors brought the stretcher up beside the open door and busied herself with removing the body-sized bag from behind Shinji's seat. For the first time, he noticed the blood staining not only her uniform, but the bag itself. He wasn't sure why he said it. After all, these two had kidnapped him, stolen what was left of Asuka, and were doing God knows what to whoever was in the bag. Maybe he was just tired of feeling useless after everything he'd already been through today.

"Need some help with that?" He wasn't even sure if it had been his own voice he had just heard; from the way the older woman paused in her work to look at him, he guessed it probably was. She stared at him for a few moments, studying him up and down, as if his sudden input greatly surprised her. Well, true, it probably did go against his usual self, but how would she know that? She didn't know anything about him….

Finally, she smiled at him. Not the same sad smile from before they had driven through the portal; this one was filled with warmth and a little bit of surprise on her part. "Sure." He helped lower the heavy bundle down to her, the shape and feel confirming his fears that it was in fact a human body. Rather than freak out, however, he simply made a mental note to be gentle with it. 'Yep, I'm in shock…'

Shinji turned his head at the sound of more mechanical workings to watch as the massive Entry Plug began to move along the conveyor, disappearing into the wall. The shorter girl, having finished with whatever she was doing at the controls, walked briskly through the double doors. He turned to ask a question from the one remaining stranger, but she seemed to anticipate it by the look upon his face.

"Now then, Mr. Ikari, I really don't have time to explain everything to you in an adequate fashion, but rest assured you're safe now." Carefully setting the bundle on the wheeled cart, she took the lead and guiding them through the same set of double doors her partner had just used.

Liz led Shinji and the gurney to the first sliding stainless steel door on the right, which parted at her approach before halting at the threshold. "Now, I want you to wait in that room at the end of the hall. You can wander around if you want, but you'll find most of the doors are locked. Gabby should have another guest for you to talk to in a little while. In the meantime, try to make yourself at home."

And with that, she disappeared into the brightly lit room, the door sliding closed behind her.

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Elizabeth could feel her skin start to tingle the moment she stepped over the threshold. She unzipped the body bag, exposing the still face of Misato Katsuragi, her long purple/black hair fanning out around her head like a shimmering halo. This effect wasn't entirely one of visual irony, as the same electrical charge permeating the room that had caused her goose bumps was having a similar static effect on her subject's hair.

The room she found herself in could have been one of countless sterile operating rooms in any number of hospitals, with the sole exception being this: other than the centrally located padded dais that closely resembled a hospital bed, which she now worked on transferring her patient to, there was no medical equipment whatsoever. Rather, the single computer monitor and large viewing screen attached to the wall had a slightly different purpose. After removing the clothing from the still warm body and placing the blood-soaked garments in a wall mounted receptacle, Liz turned to the computers and flicked a single switch.

The screen flickered to life, where she was greeted by a small, boxy looking insect-like robot. It sat in the middle of what appeared to be a multicolored circuit grid, and looked for the entire world like a cheaply-made puppet from a low budget public access show. Then again, it could be difficult to design a streamlined machine when you were working at a near atomic scale. It was also because of these miniscule robots that the entire room was kept in a positively charged state, allowing them easy access to the electrons that they converted directly into energy.

"Jimmy here. What can I do ya for?"

"Hey Jimmy, it's Elizabeth. Is Mikey there?" Liz treated the treated the screen as a videophone, speaking into it as though she were conversing with someone in another state, rather than a microscopic mechanism in this very room.

"Afraid Mikey's out sick. But as assistant foreman, I am fully capable to direct, orchestrate, and pretty much carry out any and all tasks set out before me. As long as you file the proper paperwork in triplicate."

Elizabeth was one step ahead of him, signing her name to several electronic records and waivers on the pad before her, simultaneously cursing her youngest sister's sense of humor. Giving the nanobots artificial intelligence and personalities, that she could understand. Considering the intricate levels of work they were required to perform, making it easier to interact by having an actual conversation seemed like a great idea. But then she had made them _too_ human. They started to pick up slang from somewhere. They started to hold meetings. And then, they had unionized.

There had been several tense minutes in which the sisters were left wondering if these little creations of theirs would break free in a tiny reenactment of Frankenstein's monster, sweeping across the land while dismantling everything they came across atom by atom. But then they had come forth with their demands. They wanted workmen's benefits.

Although they could power themselves by absorbing the electrons around them into their internal reactor units, it was not a passive action. It was an actual task for them to collect, and then convert, this form of energy. So, they demanded a meal plan in the form of an electrically charged work environment. On the down side, any and all nanobot work had to be carried out in one of these rooms, or a mobile electron field had to be erected for fieldwork. On the plus side, the Nanites' hesitancy to leave their comfort zone prevented a tiny apocalypse from sweeping the material world. Civilization was safe due to laziness.

"As long as you can do a repair job for me…"

"Sure thing boss. What'cha got for me today? Animal, vegetable, or mineral?"

"Somewhere between animal and vegetable…"

"Cripes! This little lady's kicked the bucket! You can't just waltz in here with a stiff, fill out Form 4-8-15, and expect me to play God! You need Form 4-8-16 for that."

"Surely you must be able to do _something_ with her."

"Oh, don't get me wrong. We can heal the bullet wound, any damage to internal organs, and repair the dead brain cells. Then I can have my boys replace lost blood, we'll get the heart started again, and she'll be kept in your standard comatose state, maintaining blood flow and preventing any further damage. But don't call me Shirley."

"I suppose, if that's the best you can do."

"You know as well as I do that there's around a ten-minute time limit on resurrection. Sure, we can fix any and all brain damage resulting from lack of oxygen flow, but after that, something gets lost that we can't put back. Just don't start in on me with any of the Spirituality crap. I'm dealing with the building blocks of the Universe down here and I've never ONCE come across a crate stamped 'SOULS' on the side."

Elizabeth knew better than to discuss semantics with a robot. Thankfully, the foreman wasn't one to waste time on idle chatter when there was a job somewhere that needed doing.

"Alright, we can get the motor running again. Any body work?"

"Yeah, now that you mention it…Do a tummy tuck, tighten up the waist and thighs…." She paused a moment to take in the Major's ample breasts. "Bust size should be fine. The poor woman doesn't need back problems to go along with what she's been through already. How's her liver looking?"

"Let's see…liver….liver….Wowza! This chick drank like a fish!"

"Go ahead and do a refurbish. Lungs too." She thought to herself for a few seconds before changing her mind. "On _second_ thought, repair any and all brain damage and internal trauma, then give her the works. Make her 18 again."

"…Everything?"

She knew what part of the female anatomy he was referring to. "Yes, EVERYTHING. Just leave the memory intact. We'll call this a little bonus for what we want her to do."

"Aye aye, Sir. Course, this is a major job we're talking' 'bout here. Could take awhile…"

"How long?"

"Let me check." He paused for a few seconds. "It's done."

Liz spun around to look at the nude form lying on the slab. She had worked with the Nanites for years. Nothing they were capable of should have surprised her. Still, she couldn't suppress her gasp of shock. They did their work well.

When she had initially undressed the Major upon setting her on the table, she had to admit that the woman in her early thirties was beautiful. It seemed unnatural how well she kept her body maintained when one considered her usual food and drink. The only visual blemishes had been the angry gaping wound in her side and the still-visible scar between and below her breasts. But if she had originally been beautiful upon entering the room, she now looked angelic. It wasn't as though the young woman had travelled back in time, as her mind, memory, and knowledge would be left intact. An extra safety feature was from the paperwork kept the miniscule workforce from putting back things that had been purposely removed, say, tonsils or the appendix. Besides her developed personality, Misato now looked exactly like she did when she was 18, right down to-

Shit. The scar. She had forgotten to tell the Nanites to leave the scar. Ms. Katsuragi's impressive bust was now, in fact, perfect. Elizabeth had read the files on their guests. She knew how Misato had come about that disfiguring slash. She also knew who she had lost on that fateful day. Damn imbedded personalities. The stupid little things worked _too_ well. In running their full scan of the patient in question, saturating her every cell, analyzing and refurbishing her every tissue; they had come across an unnatural discrepancy and repaired it without question or hesitation.

For a brief moment, she considered turning back to the viewing screen and telling Jimmy to put it back just the way it was. Then she caught herself. She'd let Misato decide whether or not she wanted to keep the constant reminder she had been walking around with for 15 years. Consulting the output summary, Elizabeth saw that her mistake wasn't a complete loss. While taking care of the visual blemish, they had also taken care of a little matter concerning her ability to have children.

That is, if she ever woke up again.

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Across the hall, Gabby was making much more progress. Her subject had still been alive, albeit barely.

The diminutive rocker's first order of business had been extracting the patient from the capsule. Her own operating room had been prepared with this particular situation in mind, the conveyor belt recessed into the floor and allowing the clean room to be shut off and made airtight. She had already changed into a sterile liquid proof suit, not so much out of thoughts of maintaining a sterile environment, but instead to keep her good clothes from getting soaked with LCL.

Garbed from the neck down in a blue suit she had based off the designs of the spacesuits in 2001: A Space Odyssey, but still wearing her green goggles, Gabby braced her booted feet against the grated floor and began spinning the hatch cover. The pilot's last battle had resulted in significant stress to the Entry Plug, the stressed metal making it more difficult to open the door. Any other girl of her size and build would have had to resort to using a metal bar for leverage, but she merely shifted her posture and applied more force, succeeding in breaking the seal. The girl fought her natural instinct to jump back out of the deluge, instead standing her ground in front of the open door as the coppery-tasting liquid flooded out of the metal cylinder, cascading against the smooth material protecting her legs before it drained out of the room and into the underground storage tanks. No need to dump this stuff into the water supply.

Taking a deep breath, she reached in for the unconscious body, carefully extracted it from the pilot seat, and placed it gently on the table behind her, marveling at how light she was. She stepped back and looked down to see what she had to work with. Damn.

The Second Child looked like hell. Her right arm was shredded and useless, a textbook case for amputation in the outside world's medical journals. Her left eye was bloodied and forced closed, her ribs obviously broken beneath the shear fabric of her Plug suit, the blood from the slashes across her stomach soaking through the clothing. It was a miracle she was still alive, a true testament to how tenacious the German girl could be when clinging to life. Being submerged in LCL probably helped a bit too. For a brief moment, Gabby wondered how the pilots were able to talk to each other if they were sitting in a can of liquid. Oh well.

Despite her love of blood and gore in any flick she watched, this was a ghastly scene set out before her, and the only way to make it better was to get to work. Gabby picked up a scalpel and busied herself with removing the suit, placing the garment in a wall mounted cubicle the same as her sister's. She glanced at the nude form on the table as she strode to the view screen on the opposite wall. The brave young pilot was definitely beautiful, in a particularly tragic kind of way. She'd have to fix that.

The screen flickered to life, where she was met by a duplicate of the tiny robot her older sister was conversing with in the room across the hall. The only difference was the color of the neon running lights on its cubist body and the voice; this one had something similar to a surfer accent, clashing drastically with the compliments and formality he used to converse with her. "Morning Creator. How may I be of assistance on this glorious and most righteous day you've chosen to bless us with?"

Gabby smirked; pleased with herself over how well her little inventions had turned out. This was why people spent so much time playing with model trains: the God complex. There was something about being able to create a miniature world that was purely to your liking, then destroying and recreating it on a whim. It was kind of like that, except once the little buggers got going they would build the world for her. "Just one, but it's pretty big. Gimme the Rocky Horror special on the little lady behind me.

"Any alterations? Beef up what's under the hood? Trick out the chassis? Simply ask and you shall receive, oh Supreme One." Being the one who created the miniscule robotic creatures carried with it the benefit of not having to fill out all that paperwork. It would have been like Noah asking for a shipping invoice before he loaded the Ark.

She thought to herself for a few seconds. To the Nanite before her, it must have felt like an hour. "Just fix any problems they may have missed in her physicals. Make sure she's ready for what we have planned."

"She's one of your pilots? Lucky her."

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The first thing she had been aware of was the unfamiliar ceiling.

She was naked, staring up at the stainless steel ceiling tiles, randomly interspaced with lighted squares giving the sparse room illumination. The raised slab she was lying on felt like metal, but without the characteristic cold that should have gone hand in hand. The alternative of lying on a 'cold, metal slab' kept her from wondering when the aliens had abducted her and wondering when the probing would begin. Rather, the metallic surface with a soft pad beneath her head felt warm to the touch; a godsend when considering what parts of her body were making contact with said surface. Speaking of God…

For a split second Asuka's mind spiraled into a panic. The memories of her last battle against Units 05 through 13 came flooding back to her. Her last acts on Earth? With growing dread she tried to lift her head and look down at herself. The effort was too much. Lacking the strength to lift her skull from the padded surface now cradling it, she focused her efforts into raising the arm up in front of her, fingers reaching for the light above. The action spurred dim stirrings of déjà vu.

Her arm was fine. Intact and in one piece, safe and sound, without a single blemish displaying the horrors she had endured. It was then that she realized she was viewing this through two fully functional eyes. The Second Child brought her trembling hand up to her face, just to make sure. No impalement, no stab wound. The young thanatophobe's worst fears had been realized. She was dead. Dead. Deceased. Ended. Liquidated. Offed. Kicked the bucket. Goin' up to the Spirit in the Sky. Become one with the Universe. Shed her mortal husk. Returning to the loam. Her bones turning to dust, spreading in the infinite breeze across the lifeless plains. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

She was dead. Fucking. Dead.

And she didn't care.

For as long as she could remember, the thought of Death gave her a taste of what it was to slip into madness. Not just her own death. Anything dead. But hey, finding your mother's body when you're a little kid will do that to you. And now here she was, finally at the threshold, looking into the white light of infinity. And it really wasn't that bad.

In fact, she felt completely and utterly awesome. It wasn't that stereotypical 'floating' crap, either. Instead she felt, for lack of a better word, buzzed. Every square inch felt tingly and warm, like putting a 9volt battery on your tongue. Except she felt it everywhere. Taking a deep breath, she ran her tongue along the roof of her mouth and swallowed. Then she ran her tongue back along her upper jaw, to test something she thought she had picked up on. Sure enough, there was the molar she had chipped during one of her countless battles against alien behemoths of unknown origin and motivation, her teeth clenched to fight the pain that was only felt by less than half a dozen others in the history of man. As her tongue probed and explored her own mouth like she had never felt it before, the reality of the situation could not be denied. Her tooth was fine. Perfect, in fact.

She wasn't sure how long she lay there on the table, staring up at the unfamiliar ceiling, thinking about nothing in particular, and overall just grooving on the sensations running through her. Then a face appeared upside down in her field of vision, and it was without a doubt the weirdest looking angel she had ever seen. And she had actually met a few.

"Welcome back Turbo! Did the Devil have any messages for me?" asked the unknown entity, her eyes hidden behind green wrap-around goggles.

"Who are you?" was all she could think to ask.

"I suppose you could think of me as a God. The little guys I used to bring you back to life already do. But since I'm not big on formalities, my name is Gabby."

Asuka could only look at her in confusion. The girl standing over her seemed to pay her no mind as she helped her into a sitting position before handing her some pills and a glass of water. "Here, these will help clear your head." Asuka swallowed the pills with slight difficulty, thankfully taking great gulps of water. Almost instantly, the pills began having an effect on her mental facilities, as she realized she had just taken unknown medication from a complete stranger.

"First things first: red, black, or grey?"

"Huh?"

The mysterious girl held up several folded t-shirts. "What color do you want? I just grabbed some stuff at random. There's more in your room, but we certainly can't have you walking around in the buff, can we?"

To be perfectly honest, Asuka was feeling so good right now that she could have walked through a crowded mall right now and not given a damn. Despite her internal objections, she allowed Gabby to help her into the supplied panties and bra, followed by a pair of jeans. She selected the black t-shirt, vaguely wondering what INVADER ZIM was. The redhead was surprised by how everything fit her limber frame so well.

The girl wearing the blue spacesuit helped her unsteadily to her feet. After a few tense seconds it was clear that her legs would support her. Gabby seemed pleased with herself. She had no way of knowing the girl was feeling something similar to a parent watching their child take its first steps. Of course, if she had been able to peg the emotion, she would have cranked up some Flogging Molly and tried to ignore it.

"Now you're probably going to be feeling a bit unlike yourself for an hour or so. That's to be expected, considering what you've been through today. Now, while it's true we're going to keep you here despite your feelings on the subject, unlike most terrorist organizations, doers of villainy, and anyone else who dabbles in super science and affronts to nature, we treat our guests like family. We've got a REC room down the hall for you to get some rest. Just sit tight and I'll be right in for your debriefing." And with that, the girl turned her back to Asuka and started to shut down the equipment and perform a quick cleanup, letting the baffled German girl see herself out.

As she left the room, so did the tingling sensation she had been feeling. It was a drastic change, similar to leaving an air-conditioned room on a hot summer day. It sent a chill down her spine. She made her way down the hall, still feeling a little dazed while vaguely trying to recall what had happened and how she had gotten here. Glancing to the left, she became aware that the walls were not the solid monotone colors she had grown used to in Tokyo 3.

This section was adorned with a mural of four men walking to the right across a deserted street. The procession was led by a man dressed in white, followed by one dressed in black. The third man in line wore a dark grey suit and was barefoot. The last individual was wearing denim. The cars visible parked on the side of the street, as well as the hairstyles being sported lead Asuka to the assumption that the scene being depicted was from a decade long since passed, though she couldn't quite place it. Reaching out and running her fingers across what she expected to be the glossy surface of a poster, the Second Child was surprised to find that the image was painstakingly painted by hand. What kind of government base let its employees paint on the walls?

Asuka spent a few moments standing before the mural, trying to name the emotions she was currently feeling. The girl who introduced herself as Gabby had perhaps sold those pills a little short: to be honest, she couldn't remember a time when she could concentrate and think about something so clearly. As she studied the image of the four unknown men crossing an unknown road, the mere simplicity of the scene stirred pangs of envy within her mind.

Damn, did her life suck. Sure, she was a college graduate at the age of 14. True, she was one of the select few on the face of the planet with the ability to pilot an Evangelion. But at what cost? Look at the dangers she encountered on a day to day basis. Look at the trauma she had gone through in a childhood preparing her to battle hostile monstrosities on behalf of mankind. Look at the spineless wimp and sleazy drunk she was forced to live with.

Look at everything she had been forced to endure.

Subconsciously Asuka raised her right arm to her left eye, just to be sure. It felt fine. But there was no possible way it had all been a dream….could there? No. You weren't supposed to be able to feel pain when you dreamt. And the memory of being ripped apart by those monsters was far outside the possibilities of her imagination.

It had really happened. She had fought the winged EVAs. She had lost. And for a few moments, she thought she may have been dead. Was Gabby telling the truth? Did she really owe her life to the blunt speaking young woman wearing the weird wrap-around goggles? Who was she? Why had she saved her, and how? Where had she taken her? All these thoughts instantly left her mind as she stepped through the sliding door at the end of the hall and saw that the room was not empty.

Shinji.

Her rage wasn't like a quick burning fuse. That comparison still implied some small amount of time between ignition and detonation. No, turning the ignition key as the vehicle you were sitting in was vaporized by the planted car bomb provided a more suitable metaphor for the way her body was consumed by fury.

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Even though he knew absolutely nothing about her, Shinji couldn't help but feel a little lonely and dejected as the tall blonde girl named Elizabeth left him in the empty hallway. He walked sullenly down the hall, paying little attention to the artwork adorning the walls of the subterranean facility. The room he now found himself in was luxurious when compared to what he was used to. Thick, plush carpeting covered the entire floor, the middle of which was taken up by several large leather sofas and a coffee table. One corner held a stainless steel refrigerator; the walls opposite were lined with bookshelves sagging under the weight of DVDs and hardback volumes. The main wall held an enormous flat screen TV hooked up to a video game system. To the right of the doorway was a large jukebox outlined with neon bubble lights.

Shinji barely took in anything of the room as he made his way to one of the sofas, sat down, and pulled his knees up to his chest. A bloody metal cross attached to a chain was still clutched tightly in his hand, creating an indentation that may well be permanent if he squeezed it much more tightly. Suddenly, he was aware of the fact that he had been clutching it desperately ever since Misato had forced it into his trembling fingers, and everything that had occurred in the last few hours came crashing down upon him.

They were gone. All of them were gone. Misato was dead. Rei was left behind. His captors were doing God-knows-what with Asuka's body. Asuka….The promise he had broken when he had allowed himself to be abducted by the girl with black hair and glowing green eyes not only shattered any remaining faith his guardian had had in him, but at the same time he had managed to abandon Asuka in her time of need. The sight of the bent and twisted Entry Plug resting atop the girls' truck was finally starting to sink in. They were all gone. The Third Child didn't know what it would feel like to be the last person alive on Earth, but he couldn't imagine it feeling much lonelier than he did now.

Shinji turned his head at the sound of the sliding door to see which of his captors had entered, only to be met with the newest in a long list of surprises as Asuka glanced about the room momentarily. Her eyes fell on him, and she stalked forward purposefully, her face an unreadable mask.

Shinji leapt up off the couch and started towards her, incredibly relieved by the sight of a familiar face. He had never thought he could possibly be so happy to see the disagreeable young woman. "Asuka, you're okay!"

The words had barely left his mouth before he stumbled backwards and tripped over a coffee table, the side of his face still stinging from the impact, and looking up into Asuka's fiery gaze, her fist still extended from delivering said impact.

"No thanks to you, asshole." There was little anger or volume in the insult. Rather, it came out as a forced whisper, her voice shaking with disgust.

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Elizabeth leaned against Misato's table with her left hand, the right holding the phone to her ear. "It's like we thought: she's too far gone. I'll catch the earliest flight I can, and then we can go ahead with it."

"Don't bother. I think I've tracked him down. I can take care of this myself."

"ABSOLUTELY NOT! There is _no_ way I'm letting you go in there on your own! Just wait for me at the airport, and we can go together." Liz was pacing back and forth now. She had been afraid her second-youngest sister would try to pull something like this.

"You've done enough already Sis. I begged you to add her to the List in the first place. You kept me from going to Tokyo 3 with you guys, now let me take care of things at this end. Don't worry, I'll be fine. See you soon."

The line went dead, Elizabeth staring at the device in her hand like she had never seen it before. Damn. She was going to have to move fast. There was little chance of stopping her, but she might be able to follow close enough to stop her from getting killed. Probably.

She had just finished dialing the airline service she favored due to their lack of background checks when the voice behind her stopped her cold. "It's not your fault you know." Turning around she found her youngest sister changing out of her blue spacesuit. Gabby motioned to the form on the table with a gloved hand. "You said it yourself: we couldn't grab her any sooner if we didn't want to fudge things up too badly. This is the only way."

Elizabeth turned off the phone with a regretful sigh. "It's not that. I'm not supposed to make you guys do all the rough stuff."

"You're not 'making' us do anything. Or did you miss the fact that you just failed to talk her out of going it alone." Gabby bent over to remove her blue leggings. Elizabeth didn't have anything to say to that, so her youngest sister continued. "Mom wouldn't have done what she did if she expected you to take her place. She's gone because she knows we can take care of ourselves. ALL of us. And if you're going to do everything yourself, there's not much point in gathering anybody from the List at all."

"But the Sereitei is far too dangerous. What if her glasses break? She shouldn't go alone." Liz knew she was struggling for an argument, but she was one to keep struggling no matter what.

Gabby sat down and started to change out of the turquoise space boots, favoring her usual black leather footwear. "Bullshit. You just wanna see Mom again." Her oldest sister tried to hide her blush. She acted like she hadn't noticed. "Besides, she's not alone you know. And she never will be again. Out of all three of us, she's probably the most capable of handling herself if things go bad. My partner's sitting out there in the hanger, and he's more than proved his usefulness today. When you come right down to it, you're the only one who doesn't have someone watching their back 24/7. You're the one who needs to rely on us from time to time. Don't feel ashamed to do so."

Liz was feeling a little choked up. Everything Gabby said was true, no matter how much she didn't like to admit it. And there was no reason for her to need to be reminded of this stuff by someone half her age. But she couldn't help feeling at least some tinge of personal failure if she couldn't be the solid foundation her family needed. Being told flat-out that you weren't the vital lynchpin of the group you should have been didn't help one's ego either.

Gabby finished readjusting her Flogging Molly t-shirt as she stood up with her arms outstretched. "Don't be like that. Want a hug?" Her older sister groaned solemnly as she embraced her. "It's creepy seeing you all vulnerable and shit. Come on, turn that frown upside down! Didn't you get to kill a whole bunch of bad guys today?"

"Yeah, that was pretty cool." The corners of Elizabeth's mouth crept up into a smirk of embarrassment. "Thanks munchkin."

"Piss off! You and your freakish Amazonian height!" Gabby was more than a full head shorter than both her sisters, an aspect of herself that she was somewhat unhappy with, as it lead others to view her as less intimidating than she hoped. She could still hold her own in the wildest mosh pits.

"Nice job on Katsuragi by the way. Still surprised by how well my little guys do their job?" The girl walked over to the table and ran her fingers through Misato's long dark hair. Her own was of a darker shade, but the volume made her slightly envious. She couldn't help but wonder how this would look thrashing to some hardcore Metal. Then something occurred to her. "Wait, what did you do?"

"What? What's wrong?" Elizabeth carefully avoided making eye contact, favoring to look at the floor in an effort of hiding her sheepish smile.

"The scar's gone…Damn, she's got some nice boobs." Gabby, like her sisters, had gone over these peoples' files repeatedly. However, being her, the first thing she ever checked were records of discerning marks, namely tattoos. Misato's scar had always caught her eye, even more so once she had researched its origin. Satisfied that she had sufficiently lured her oldest sibling into a false sense of security, the young woman lunged forth with what was actually on her mind. "Oh, and now that I think about it, she's A DECADE YOUNGER!"

Liz threw her hands up into the air with exasperation. "Oh, COME ON! Did you really think I wouldn't do something like this for her?"

"I just thought we were going to try and not affect the target worlds too greatly. Think anyone will notice this? Not to mention, how will she react when she wakes up and finds out all of her clothes don't fit?" Gabby wore her goggles constantly for several reasons, one of which being the prevention of other people reading her emotions through her eyes. All she needed to do in order to make someone think she was pissed was keep the humor out of her voice. Her older sister knew this trick all too well.

"I can't imagine it will be that much worse than coming back from the dead, can you?" Liz removed a light sheet and draped it gently over the still form. "You really think this'll work?"

"Relax. All Sarah has to do is find that drunk Shinigami who's lugging around the double Ds. Besides, you knew Mom longer than any of us. Do you really think she'd be opposed to what Sarah's trying to do?"

Elizabeth thought for a few seconds before looking at her kid sister with a wide smile. Remembering their mother always brought a warm feeling to her chest. "Not a chance in Hell."

"And if it doesn't work, I could always just dance in a circle around her while chanting 'Arise, Chicken, Arise!'" Gabby started for the door. "I've already sent the Chopper and the Tank back to their positions until we want to power the next jump. Why don't you go take a nap? She's not going anywhere. I'll go check in and see how the Asuka and Shinji are doing."

Liz spun around at that. "Asuka's up already? And you left them ALONE together! Smeg….Hurry up and get in there before she strangles him!"

Gabby made her way out the door at a leisurely pace.

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Flipping the cellular phone closed, Sarah adjusted her shoulder bag as she surveyed the establishment before her. The shop had a decidedly Eastern feel to it; even more so than most of the buildings she had encountered in this Japanese city. She started up the path when she was halted by the sight of two children, a boy and a girl, the latter of which seemed to be having a great deal of trouble. Her broom lay at her feet, where she had dropped it after being attacked by her companion.

The glow surrounding the two as she watched them through the special lenses of her glasses told her this must be the place. Sarah Grant really didn't need glasses; her vision actually a little better than 20:20. Recently her vision was growing even sharper, but she preferred not to think about the unpleasant cause behind that. The reason she chose to wear these things was their ability to let her see spiritual pressure.

Sarah, Elizabeth, and Gabby were all slightly more in tune with the spiritual world around them than most individuals, but did not match up to those special individuals who could see spirits as clearly as flesh and blood human beings. Elizabeth and Gabby were both stuck in the same boat, only being able to sense whether or not a spirit was nearby or if an individual's spiritual pressure was greater than normal. Sarah's own sixth sense let her see faint shimmers of the dearly departed, but if she closed her eyes and stood still, she was able to sense and precisely pinpoint such a presence if it was within about fifty feet. Hence the lenses Gabby had created.

What few people realized, probably because so few even knew of its existence, was that spiritual pressure could be thought of as a form of radiation. The lenses in Sarah's glasses used the same technology Gabby had incorporated into her own goggles to make it possible to not only see ghosts as clearly as the living people next to them, but those living individuals with greater-than-usual levels of spiritual pressure were seen as emanating a soft glow, the intensity of which was based on the magnitude of power. While Gabby preferred to compare them to the glasses in John Carpenter's 'They Live', only without the headaches and in color, Sarah jokingly referred to her invention as the 'Menger Sponge'.

Humor or no, she was greatly thankful of the awesome little device. It would be vital for what she had planned, and had succeeded in providing quite a shock when she had entered the local high school. Within minutes, she had counted FIVE individuals with visible wavelengths so great that they themselves must have been capable of viewing the spiritual world unhindered. And without the glasses, the two children involved in a one-sided scuffle would have looked just like any other rowdy adolescents. The thick golden aura she could see around each argued otherwise.

Sarah removed the glasses and folded them carefully into her shirt pocket while calling out to the pair. "Excuse me, but would you kids be so kind as to tell me if the manager is in?"

Ururu Tsumugiya and Jinta Hanakari ceased in their brawling long enough to give the stranger the once over. "He's in the back of the store, Ma'am. Would you like me to escort you?" Ururu's voice was decidedly calm, despite Jinta's failure to release her twin locks.

"No thanks, dear. I know the way." The duo watched as she disappeared inside before Jinta continued his assault, much to the frail-looking girl's chagrin.

Kisuke Urahara was lying on a futon behind the counter, fast asleep. A sharp kick to the side resolved this. Mr. Hat&Clogs stared up blearily to see who had disturbed him, readjusting his white-and-green striped hat and brushing his messed blonde hair out of his eyes. Once his vision was clear, recognition was instantaneous. Surprise didn't quite cover his reaction, but he did his best to hide it. "Well, well! Long time no see! And to what do I owe this pleasure, Ms. Grant?"

"I'm afraid this isn't a social call Urahara." Sarah watched him casually, carefully observing every movement he made despite being on friendly terms.

He seemed not to hear her. "How are you and your lovely sisters doing?"

"I'm rather peachy. You can ask them yourself once they show up. I'm sure they'll be coming after me soon enough." She kept a careful eye on his cane, balancing herself on the balls of her feet. She knew what he had hidden inside, and friendly acquaintance or no, the unwelcome little voice in her head that told her to treat everything as a possible threat kept her at the ready, prepared to lash out like a coiled viper should he reveal the Zanpoktou secreted within.

"Done something naughty, have you?" The humorous tilt of his voice masked his apprehension. He knew where she was headed with this.

"Not yet I haven't." The shopkeeper braced himself. Here it comes.

"I need to go to the Soul Society." And BAM! There it was.

Urahara took a deep breath, releasing it as a low sigh as he extricated himself from behind the counter. "Haven't you heard the news? The city's LOADED with Soul Reapers nowadays. Why not go bother one of them and leave me to my thriving business?" He motioned to the empty store around them.

"I'd rather not draw too much attention to myself. 'Hey, there! You don't know me, but I've heard through the grapevine that you're a warrior from the afterlife, and I find myself in dire need of passage to said land of ghosts and goblins. Mind doing me a solid?' Yeah, I'm SURE that'll work just fine. Besides-" She paused midsentance as the watch on her list began to beep, glancing down at the face. The shopkeeper noticed a slight tremble to her fingers as she turned her back to him, reaching into her bag and withdrawing a silver flask. She unscrewed the top and tilted it back, taking a deep swig before turning back to him and finishing. "Besides, I'm somewhat in a hurry."

Urahara kept trying to build his case, knowing full well she would likely be ready to rebuff him at every turn. "You know how much trouble I can get into for this? It's really gonna cost you."

Sarah removed a small cardboard box from her shoulder pack and set it on the counter. With a nonchalant movement, Urarhara reached out and flipped open the lid, before staring at the contents questioningly: a dozen crisp-looking apples, carefully packed with protective tissue. "Are those…Afal Enlli?"

Sarah grinned widely before launching into her sales pitch. "Fresh picked this morning from the private orchard of a very close family friend. The mother tree was identified as the only one in existence in 1998, where it is believed to have grown on Bardsey Island since the 1300s. These apples are, officially, the rarest in the world."

Hat&Clogs tried desperately to recover his composure. His mouth was already starting to water. "It's a start…"

His visitor rolled her emerald green eyes with a mix of exasperation and amusement, resorting to bring out the big guns. "AND, I'll buy you a new hat."

That was the breaking point. Urahara had no doubt she would win in the end; she always did. All he could hope to do was get the most out of the bargain while he had the chance. "You drive a hard bargain, Miss. Follow me downstairs and let's see what we can do."

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Wow, another chap up, SO many to go….

Where have the EVA pilots found themselves? What business does Sarah have in the Soul Society? How badly is Asuka going to kick Shinji's ass? What was Chizuru doing in the bathroom? Find out next installment!

Okay, so I'm not even gonna go there on the Chizuru issue. If you can't figure out the innuendo yourself, you're probably too young to be reading this, as this story is going to get a _lot_ more complicated than the inner workings of an excitable lesbian schoolgirl. If you still don't get it, go ask your parents. Seriously. 'Cause that would be AWESOME.

For people who are enjoying this, I thank you kindly. In case you haven't noticed, as classes escalate for me the length of time between updates has increased. Sooo, let's see how much I can give you each time, shall we?

Also, please keep in mind that if I miss something that I really wanted to put in sooner, or I feel the story as a whole will benefit, then previous chapters may be revised. There's not much sense in putting so much work into this project if people won't enjoy it. I have already done this to the previous chapter, so feel free to brush up on my little yarn.

And if you TRULY enjoy what you've read, but don't like waiting so long for updates, there's something you can do to help:

Stroke the artist's fickle ego. Give him motivation to write, rather than watch anime, play C&C 3, or do his homework. This can be down by scrolling down and clicking on that little button right, down, THERE.

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	3. Clorox

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.

To the dozen or so people who are actually reading this, I want to apologize for the delay. Now that I'm done with school for the summer, I can finally get something important done!

Other than the pressures of school, the simple fact of the matter is this: I am putting more thought and effort into this project than anything I have ever attempted before. Not only is it the culmination of years of daydreaming, it also happens to be the debut of my oc's, whom I value very much. I want this to kick ass.

On that note, episodes 63 and 64 of Bleach succeeded in throwing me a curveball, one which only hampered my work until I was able to think of an adequate solution. It seems Rukia did not accompany the others back to the Soul Society after her rescue. Hey, I like the dub and am refraining from jumping forth with the subs. So sue me. Besides, I've got enough anime currently on my plate without adding another 100+ episodes of Bleach. I've tried to handle it to the best of my ability without going back and writing her out of the previous chapter, while at the same time explaining why I'm not using characters that should be there according to canon.

coughRENJI!cough .

Rhamiel506: The specific Pink Floyd song Gabby was playing during the trip through the portal was "Echoes". Speaking of which, a little bit was added in the last rewrite to help enhance her personality. I feel the true insanity of her character is now apparent. I've also fixed up some dialogue and changed some of the smaller details to help this thing flow.

Rose1948: Ma'am, you are a Godsend. Your reviews, brief as they may be, always make me feel better.

Disclaimer: Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. Evangelion belongs to Gainax. There are dozens of other little references in this thing, and they belong to whoever they belong to. Elizabeth, Sarah, and Gabby Grant, however, are mine.

From this point forward, including all future chapters AND stories alike, my work is dedicated to Eli-chan. Not only for helping greatly in getting me back on track, but also for helping me to get through the end of my most stressful school year EVER, for the stability and reassurance she was able to provide, and for being one of the coolest and most intimate friends a guy could ever ask for. I can only imagine how truly incredible it will be to meet you in person. .

**CLOROX**

There was so much blood.

The ruby-red mess clashed drastically with the shockingly-pale white of her clammy skin. For one brief absurd moment, the young woman looked like the title character from the Karin anime she adored so much. With the significant difference being that the Chibi Vampire never appeared quite so grotesque when covered in blood.

Her nose was bleeding profusely, adding to the ghastly sight of the dual rivers of crimson pouring forth from her tear ducts. She was actually crying blood.

She was taken by another fit of retching, although the contents of her stomach had been lost ages ago. All that came up was more blood. No, that wasn't true, Elizabeth corrected herself. She could clearly make out some of the girl's teeth in the mess.

Dear God, there was so much blood.

Gabby was standing in the corner, teetering on the brink of tears, yet doing her best to fight back the reality that Sarah was about to die.

Elizabeth was putting up significantly less resistance, cursing her inability to save her younger sibling. The true magnitude of the situation could not be kept at bay: If she was taken by this thing, the two of them would be next.

The eldest Grant sister wasn't the only one aware of this inevitable outcome. Sarah concluded her violent convulsions before successfully repressing subsequent such fits. Painfully pushing herself across the floor until she could rest her back against the wall, she looked up into Elizabeth's face, finding all the pain and fear she was experiencing reflected back at her. That simple action seemed to drain her final reserves. She tried to speak, but in her current state could only manage a hoarse whisper.

"You know in horror movies, where somebody's begging their friends to kill them, but they won't do it? And a little while later it turns out they should have? Well, I think this is one of those times…"

No. Elizabeth refused to believe her. There was no way in hell that she could kill her own sister. Even as those thoughts dominated her mind, her body was acting of its own accord, some horrible little part of her mind knew what she was saying was true. The grip of the revolver she had taken off the guard had somehow found its way into her sweaty palm.

Elizabeth's voice shook even worse than her hands as she leveled the firearm at her pleading sister's forehead, the sight wavering wildly but never leaving its target at such close range. "I'm sorry, Sarah…."

Her trembling finger eased back the trigger, taking it to, then past, the pressure point.

The gun fired.

Elizabeth awoke with a start.

There were a few panicked seconds when she was unsure of her surroundings, but these quickly left her as she realized she was safe in her bed, entangled in the sheets, her sleeping clothes drenched in a cold sweat. It was with no small effort that she was able to control her rapid breathing and accelerated heart rate.

It had been the dream again. That stupid dream.

How often had she been having it recently? Once a week, maybe twice? She wanted to tell herself it didn't mean anything, that there was no correlation between its increasing occurrence and her sister's current well-being, but her mind was hard-pressed to accept such an argument after the crystal clear images that had just been displayed. She could still smell wet copper and gunpowder. And something else, too…

Elizabeth raised her arm, sniffed at herself cautiously, and wrinkled her nose in distaste. She wasted no time as she made a beeline for the bathroom, hoping a hot shower would help her get some sleep. With the job they had to look forward to, the last thing she wanted to do was dwell on the past.

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The actual translation of _Shinigami_ is _Death God_, but in an attempt of avoiding being totally creepy, they refer to themselves as _Soul Reapers_ more often than not. In the western world, the job they perform would be fairly similar to the duties of the Grim Reaper. While the black robes worn by each were similar, the scythe was replaced with a zanpakutō, the spiritual sword that allows a Soul Reaper to channel their powers.

The actual depiction of heaven is also slightly different, even so much as that it is referred to as the Soul Society, a sprawling world with a fairly rustic and un-advanced level of technology similar to feudal Japan. The Shinigami make their home in the inner sanctum, also known as the Seireitei. The massive residential area outside the Seireitei's gates is known as the Rukongai, and is divided into some eighty districts. Hueco Mundo is a dimension that lies between the Soul Society and the human world, and is populated by Hollows, souls of the deceased that have lingered too long without being slain by a Soul Reaper. When they ARE cleansed by a Shinigami's blade, they will either enter the Soul Society, or be drug forcibly into the gates of Hell.

While there exists life after death, it should be interesting to note that there is also death after life after death. When a citizen of the Soul Society dies, they are reborn into the human world, creating a balance between the two realms. And then there were people like Kisuke Urahara, who were particularly adept at disrupting this balance.

Urahara, at one time, was a Soul Reaper. However, through a rather complicated series of events and actions on his part, he has since been banished from the Soul Society. This won't stop him from helping others enter from time to time; such was the case when a group of spiritually powerful teenagers mounted an ill-conceived plot to rescue their friend from an unjust execution. After some quick and intense training, Urahara opened a gateway for them to the other side, at the same time employing a device of his own creation that could cheat death in ways never before imagined.

The goal of remaining discreet was only one reason Sarah Grant went to Uruhara for this trip. The other reason lay in the fact that she, herself, was not a Spirit. This is where the shopkeeper's conversion machine came into play, allowing a flesh and blood being to enter the Soul Society without first having their soul ripped from their body. And since she really didn't feel like dying before she made this trip, that was a definite plus.

In the process of creating a doorway to the Soul Society, Urahara would first have one enter the vast basement beneath his shop. He'd like for you to believe that the immense cavern was simply an enormous excavation, but there were two glaring problems with this: One: there would be no possible source of sunlight, and Two: such a lack of support columns would instantaneously bring the ceiling crashing down, a great deal of the city coming with it. Despite this, most visitors pay little attention to the strange fluctuation taking place as they descended the central ladder.

Kisuke Uruhara busied himself with the preparation of the Zenkaimon, or Piercing Worlds Gate, under the watchful eye of his customer. He was assisted by Tessai Tsukabishi, a massive, mustached, soft-spoken man who was never seen without wearing an apron. Uruhara was painfully aware of how each and every movement he made with his cane was being watched by the young girl, as if she were preparing for the inevitability that he spins around and draws out his zanpakutō from inside. Even with the nature of their somewhat friendly relationship, she refused to drop her guard for even a second.

And that wasn't the only source of Urahara's uneasiness. Despite his own impressive array of powers and skill, the former Shinigami couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable around this girl. There was something about her…an untapped source of strength and viciousness that didn't quite suit her schoolgirl appearance. Yoruichi Shihōin, his feline companion and accomplished shape shifter, had pegged it rather well. She had made the suggestion that the girl was harboring something deep down inside; something that shouldn't be there. Uruhara didn't know what the real story was. All he knew for sure was that if she ever went and freed the beast, he wanted to be there to see it.

The shopkeepers finished their work, the large square portal standing tall and at the ready. The gateway resembled a large picture frame comprised of cobbled stone, filled with a rippling translucent membrane.

Hat-and-Clogs stepped back, waving his arm with a flourish. "There you have it, little lady. One stairway to heaven, ready to go. Now, you do understand your four minute window due to the Conversion Machine. Keep moving forward, don't look back, and you should be fine."

In yet another move that only helped to disorient his idea of the girl, Sarah skipped over and kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Thank you SOOO much, Kisuke! You have no idea how much this means to me." But then, suddenly, the defensive and paranoid warrior was back. Her entire body stiffened as she cocked her head, listening to something only she could hear. Her eyes shot off towards the ladder, but by the time Urahara could see what she was looking at the girl had already spun on her heel, hugged the muscular Tessai, thanking him for his help as well, and leapt towards the portal. "Take care of that for me, would ya? Thanks again!" And then she was gone.

Urahara chuckled softly, turning his full attention to the group of newcomers who had just caused his client so much distress and panic. There were four of them, every single one veterans of a previous journey to the Soul Society. The tallest of the quintet dwarfed his companions in both mass and height. Yasutora "Chad" Sado was of Mexican descent, and appeared much older than the teenager he actually was.

Next in line was Orihime Inoue, a somewhat naïve and clueless redhead, was easily the most sensitive and kind of the bunch. Her knowledge of technology was virtually nonexistent, so much so that she did not own a cell phone due to the fact that she didn't know how to use it. Her taste in food could kindly be described as creative, and unkindly with so many other less flattering adjectives. The only thing more bizarre than her culinary palette was her imagination, allowing her to see the world in ways that would make the Beatles envious. She also had a huge crush on Ichigo Kurosaki.

Orihime was followed by said crush. Ichigo, another natural redhead, was a 15-year-old possessing a level of spiritual power that surprises anyone who is familiar with such a thing. This immense power had always been present in the form of an ability to see the spirits of the dearly departed. Its abnormally high levels helped his friends develop their own powers as well, even though it was not fully unlocked until he met Rukia Kuchiki.

Rukia was the only one in the group who could not claim citizenship in the human world, her small frame and bobbed haircut effectively masking the true level of power she possessed. She was the Soul Reaper who had first loaned her powers to Ichigo, awakening his own Spiritual Pressure and therefore setting off the chain of events that had originally brought this group together. After the events surrounding her rescue from execution, she had elected to stay behind in the Soul Society, rather than returning with her friends to the human world. It was more sentimentality than anything else that had her spending a few weeks back in this realm, repeating her housing situation by sleeping in Ichigo's closet while wearing a pilfered pair of his sister's pajamas.

The group slowed to a halt upon seeing the open portal, all of them wearing a look of confusion upon seeing the massive stone doorway. Kisuke did his best to welcome the newcomers warmly. "Greetings, Ichigo! Not quite the _whole_ gang, as Renji and Uryū seem to be absent, but quality beats quantity. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

The question was ignored as Rukia shouted one of her own. "Uruhara! When did she ask for a gateway?"

The shopkeeper dismissed the anger with a wave of his hand. "When she came into my shop, almost half an hour ago. And before you jump to the offensive, rest assured she has every right to go there."

It was at this that Ichigo stepped in with his typical level of grace and tact. "What the hell is going on here, Hat-and-Clogs! Who is she anyway!"

He failed to get a rise out of the man in the striped hat. "I'm sorry Ichigo, but there exists such a thing as customer confidentiality. However, if you really want to find out what's going on, why don't you ask her yourself? You've only missed her by a few seconds. True there's a limited timeframe, but seeing as you kids could make it through last time, you really shouldn't have too much of a problem. That doesn't mean you should dawdle, though…"

The group of students stood there for a few seconds, at a loss as how to handle that suggestion. After all, they were only here in the first place because, in the process of returning the girl's book when she had left it outside during lunch, Orihime had followed the mysterious student to Urahara's shop, discovered where she was going, and promptly ran to get whatever reinforcements she could find.

Renji was off doing who knows what while Uryū was still keeping his distance from Ichigo. Their camaraderie during Rukia's rescue aside, the Quincy was not yet prepared to start a warm friendship with a Shinigami. With those two exceptions, everyone was at least a little curious to learn more about the new classmate who seemed a little too old and mostly kept to herself. However, no one had been prepared for a trip outside their plane of reality. A decision had to be made, and it had to be made quickly.

Without so much as turning her head to ask the opinions of her comrades, Orihime shot forward, disappearing through the portal. She was followed promptly by Rukia, quick on her heels, intent on discovering precisely what unorthodox goings-on were taking place in her designated sector of the human world. Chad was next, only because it took slightly longer for his large frame to pick up momentum. This left Ichigo standing alone, wearing a perplexed expression. It didn't seem like he had much choice. But if he was going to go, he sure as hell wasn't going like this.

"Sonuva…Hat-and-Clogs, hit me!"

The tip of Uruhara's cane lifted up off the ground, revealing the stylized skull surrounded by blue frames that was engraved in the base. The emblem shot forward as the retired Soul Reaper thrust forth the concealed weapon, coming into contact and then penetrating Ichigo's skull. The teen felt a sudden jolt, catching himself after staggering back several feet just in time to see his lifeless body collapse. His soul had been removed, and he was now clothed in his Shinigami robes, free to access his spiritual pressure.

Ichigo sped through the portal, yelling over his shoulder as he ran. "You'd better take good care of that while I'm gone!"

Uruhara watched the group leave before asking his associate to carry the empty shell upstairs for careful storage. Tessai hoisted the corpse over his shoulder and made his way upstairs. He was well out of earshot when Hat-and-Clogs began to giggle quietly to himself. This soon escalated into a hearty chuckle. This was replaced with sidesplitting laughter, leaving the Shinigami inventor doubled over. There was just something funny about the idea of what the police would say if they ever found the body of a high school student stuffed into a crate in the backroom of his shop.

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Shinji struggled to his feet, absentmindedly wiping at the stream of blood flowing freely from his nose. That simple distraction, combined with the way the room currently seemed to be spinning, effectively left him open for the subsequent roundhouse kick to the head. His knees buckled as he was thrown against the side of the leather sofa, his face becoming reacquainted with the floor during his body's rebound.

"YOU PATHETIC LITTLE BASTARD! Do you have ANY idea what you put me through!" It occurred to Asuka that perhaps she wasn't getting the point across to her friend/punching bag. A nice little kick to the ribs seemed to fix this, while at the same time flipping him face up onto his back.

Although it was somewhat comforting when the girl's explosive anger he was so used to finally made its appearance, the raw magnitude and energy that accompanied it couldn't help but make Shinji a little nostalgic for the empty disgust she had regarded him with upon initially entering the room and launching into her current tirade.

"Do you have ANY clue what happened to me! And where the Hell were you during all this! Probably crying in some corner like the sniveling little wimp you are!"

Shinji made no attempt at self-defense. He deserved this. He had never believed in anything so completely.

Asuka dropped to her knees, straddling his waist. The complete and total disregard to his wellbeing allowed her to drop her full weight upon him with considerable force, knocking the wind from his skinny frame. The redhead's left hand clasped his bloodied collar and yanked him up off the floor as she brought her right arm back, fist tightly clenched.

"You left me to DIE!"

The Second Child's eyes, narrowed to furious slits, sprang open in surprise as her attempt to throw the punch was sabotaged by a viselike grip on her wrist. Her breath caught in her chest as she was pulled up and off her victim, flung backwards in the same motion before landing in a heap on one of the plush chairs.

"FOR THE LOVE OF GAMERA, FRIEND TO CHILDREN, WILL YOU PLEASE SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

Shinji's mind was thoroughly muddled thanks to the mixture of traumatic stress and physical pain he had just been subjected to, but he was still able to discern the form of his savior, whether he wanted saving or not. Gabby was standing over him, a bundle of clothing under her arm as she offered her body as a physical barrier between the two teens. As always, her eyes remained hidden and unreadable by the goggles. The flush of her cheeks combined with the volume of her voice did more than enough to compensate.

The diminutive young woman leveled an accusatory finger at Asuka, who was still trying to regain her footing after being thrown across the room so easily. "YOU need to stop pushing people away and blaming your own shortcomings on everyone else! If you like Shinji, tell him already and be on your happy little way! And YOU!" Gabby pivoted around, directing the threatening digit at Shinji.

"Grow a fucking spine! If you screw up, big deal! The secret to making it through this life is to surround yourself with people who can cover your ass when you DO screw up! And take a little credit every once in awhile! You know you're not completely in the wrong here, right?" He struggled to nod, but the gesture was still rather feeble. "Then next time she gets up in your grill, smack the bitch upside the

head!" Spinning around and finding her original target, Asuka was halted halfway as she tried to get up off the couch, the pointing index finger leveled at her forehead having the same effect as a loaded gun.

"You DO know he tried to get out there, right? It's not like he didn't try to help you! He almost caught a bullet quite a few times in the process! Even if I HAD let him reach the EVA cages, he still would have been screwed because SEELE gummed up Unit 01 with Bakelite! Sure, he's tried to chicken out, but he would have gone through with it in the end! And he would have lost! But at least he would have tried!" Asuka was close to hyperventilating, grinding her teeth in anger at the thought that this….stranger…had the audacity to not only _touch_ her, but to actually speak to her in this manner.

"Verflucht nochmal! Now that you've finished with your little…._therapy session_…would you mind being so kind as to tell us who the HELL you are and why the HELL you've brought us here!"

"Leck mich am Arsch!" Asuka froze as she was cussed out in her native tongue.

"We brought you here because we have a job that we can't do alone, and there's a member in our ranks who's probably too sympathetic for her own good! Personally, I think the lot of you are too psychologically crippled to be of use to anyone! Who the hell are we? We're the people who saved your lives, and so help me I will end yours if you don't shut the hell up!"

Asuka could only stare wide-eyed as their captor screamed in her face, shaking her by the shirt collar. The German girl was speechless, unaccustomed to being on the receiving end of such verbal abuse. Her anger momentarily forgotten, the terrified look on her face seemed to bring Gabby back down off her raging high. Her goggled face visibly softened as she released her grip, readjusting the other girl's collar almost apologetically.

She took a few steps back until she could look at the both of them simultaneously, taking a few slow breaths to calm herself before continuing. "Look, I know you two have been through a lot. But I said it before and I'll say it again: You're safe now. I know you two have a lot of questions, but we're gonna have to keep you in the dark for a little bit longer for two reasons. One: everyone's not here yet, and there's way too much for us to want to go over it several times. And B: even if I were to truthfully answer every single one of your questions RIGHT now, there's no way in hell you'd believe me. So, for the time being, sit tight and try to get along. Watch some TV or something." She started for the door, finally taking the time to set the bundle of clothing on a coffee table before she left.

"Living on an island after a cataclysmic event raised the world's oceans until the streets look like Venice hasn't turned you guys off seafood, has it?" Gabby seemed to pay them no mind as she adjusted a framed, autographed poster on the wall bearing a shamrock and the words FLOGGING MOLLY which had been knocked askew during their tussle.

Asuka's face was flushed with rage, her entire body trembling slightly. She was so angry she was unable to speak, yet alone place an order for dinner. Although Shinji himself was also stricken mute, his own silence was more or less due to the absurdity of the question, as well as the calm manner in which it was

presented after the inquisitive individual had just so thoroughly reamed them both a new one. He _was_ however capable of a response, slowly shaking his head no, that seafood would be fine.

"Sweet! You should see the size of the crab legs we get up here. Claws the size of your _fist_! Anyway, dinner's in an hour and a half. You kids behave. And if you guys are gonna go all Brad Pitt versus Edward Norton on us, do me a solid and take it out into the hallway so you don't break anything, alright?"

With that she left the room, leaving a flabbergasted Shinji and a seething Asuka in her wake.

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This trip through the dongai, or the area between the Soul Society and the world of the living, was much easier than the first time Ichigo and his friends made the passage, as this was not the one day out of the week when the Cleaner was sent through. Not to mention each of the members present had become significantly stronger and faster since that time. Despite this, they were still unable to catch up with the exchange student who should have been less than 30 seconds ahead of them.

The usual bright flash and thunderous crash sent the five teens rolling through the exit and into a rustic street. Everyone had climbed to their feet and were brushing themselves off when Rukia slapped herself in the forehead. "DAMMIT! I'm still in my gigai!" Chad and Ichigo tried to console her with the knowledge that they were unlikely to see any actual combat. Their last visit left them with at least some level of respect/acceptance, and that they should hopefully be back in the human world before too long. One look from Rukia shut them up quickly. It was obvious she was more concerned with the idea of an Officer such as herself being stuck in this predicament.

Orihime ran to the first person she saw and inquired as to the whereabouts of a girl who had come into the city moments before. Seeing as visitors through this particular gate were few and far between, the exchange student had been seen heading for the Western Gate into the Seireitei. Orihime thanked the elderly informant, and the gang made off in the indicated direction.

The enormous white walls of the inner Sanctum were already in view, and the group didn't have to run too far before the Gate became visible. Also visible was the Guardian of the Western Gate, Jidanbō Ikkanzaka, an enormous man nearly 30 feet tall, wearing the black robes of the Shinigami and a somewhat comical red fez hat. He was focused on something close to the ground.

Sarah looked far different when she wasn't sporting the school uniform, the skirt replaced with a pair of dark blue jeans. She was wearing a black short sleeved shirt, a silhouette of a witch and a cat on a broom with the facetious words KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE: TRAINEE emblazoned over the breast pocket.

Even from a distance, Orihime spied the flash of color around Sarah's wrist that the older girl was never without. For the past three weeks, she had constantly found her eyes drawn to the red band with the words WRIST STRONG molded into the rubber surface, but it was only a few days earlier that she had overcome her reservations and asked the new student about the strange little piece of jewelry. Sarah had gladly taken the time to try and explain the joke surrounding the bracelet and its involvement with an American late night television personality. Although Orihime couldn't quite grasp the humor of breaking one's wrist, she was suddenly made aware of the fact that other than looking slightly older than the average high school student, Sarah Grant was obviously foreign, hiding the fact by how fluently she spoke both English and Japanese. English by and of itself wasn't too much of a tell, seeing as every student in Japan took classes at some point or other. Heck, Japanese artists were even putting English lyrics and phrases in their songs nowadays.

Jidanbō looked up at their approach and smiled broadly, momentarily causing his visitor to cease her pleading argument. Sarah followed his line of sight, her face lighting up as she recognized them. "There you are! Thank goodness. I don't have a travel permit, and I'm really in no mood to fight my way past Gigantor here, so I was about to go track down Kūkaku Shiba. Could you guys do me a HUGE favor and vouch for me? I'm kind of in a hurry."

If the crew hadn't halted now that they were so close to their target, that sudden excess of information would have stopped them in their tracks. Who she really was, what she was doing over here, how she even KNEW about this place were all wonderful questions. Ichigo, however, opted for one with a little less tact.

"You were in such a hurry that you're willing to be fired out of a freakin' _cannon!_?"

Sarah stared at him for a few moments before answering, trying to determine whether or not he was actually serious. "Nooo….I was going to ask her to write me a note so Jidanbō will let me pass. Besides, death from above doesn't really strike me as being inconspicuous."

Orihime chimed in. "What are you doing over here, anyway?"

Sarah turned her attention to the redhead, pausing to glance back at Ichigo cautiously, should he let loose with another rather insane outburst. Fired out of a cannon, for crying out loud… "I need to see a specific Soul Reaper: long blonde hair, she's about this tall," Sarah held her hand level about a foot above her head, "boobs out to here," she moved her hands roughly a foot in front of her chest, "and a beauty mark right here." Sarah concluded her description by pointing to her chin. She was only halfway through the description before everyone assembled knew exactly who she was talking about, the mental picture only enhanced by her rather accurate description.

Ichigo jumped back into the conversation, eager for a little bit more information. "Alright, maybe we'll help you. MAYBE. But first you have to tell us why you need to see the Lieutenant of Squad 10."

Sarah met his gaze without fail. "No…I don't think I'm going to answer that. Sorry."

A large x-shaped vein began to pound above Ichigo's eye as his temper flared.

"Look: this is a private matter, and I have my reasons for wanting to keep quiet about the whole thing. If you're not gonna help me, I'm just gonna have to go find Yoruichi or Kūkaku. Either way, I'm getting on the other side of this wall. You wanna stop me? You'll have to do it by force. And seeing as I am unarmed AND posing no threat to you other than wanting to keep my business to myself, I can't imagine that you'll be all too willing to slice up a classmate. So, to reiterate: Urahara let me through, I have several other contacts and names I can use over here, secrecy is a must, and I'm somewhat in a hurry. Are you guys going to help me or not?"

Everyone seemed a little taken aback, unfamiliar with this aggressive and straightforward aspect of Sarah's personality. True, no one knew her all that well, but what they had simply observed over the past couple of weeks had her solidly pegged as something of a shy and quiet bookworm. At least, when she wasn't being so sexually explicit in her conversations as to make another classmate rush to the restroom for some alone time. Chizuru still couldn't pass the new girl in the halls without blushing furiously.

Ichigo chose to break the silence. "Do you have ANY idea where you are! The Shinigami of the 13 Squads are some of the most dangerous people in the Seireitei AND the human world combined, and you want to try and sneak into their headquarters unnoticed! Even WITH our help, they probably already know you're here and are currently in the process of dealing with it/you! Just ask Rukia! She knows the inner workings of the Seireitei better than any of us!"

Rukia shook her head. "Uruhara's gateway is nearly foolproof. The only reason the 13 Squads knew you guys were here when you came to rescue me was because Aizen was pulling the strings the whole time. And the wall's been kept up since he betrayed us and fled to Hueco Mundo, not because an intruder was detected. Hypothetically, it is possible for her to get inside without anyone knowing she's here…"

Ichigo stared at her in amazement. "You're not seriously thinking about helping her with this, are you? She won't even tell us what's going on!"

"So what are you saying? Just because she has something she can't tell us, we should refuse our assistance? If she's caught alone, what's to stop her from being killed? Especially in these tense times following Aizen's betrayal. Everyone's a little jumpy. She has a much better chance of getting out of here alive if we're with her. Besides, if Uruhara trusts her, that's good enough for me."

Jidanbō had been doing his best to follow the back and forth between the stranger and the group of familiar friends, but was failing miserably, unsure of exactly what was going on. He snapped to attention as Rukia motioned for him to open the gate. He would have still been forced to ask for her travel permit if not for Ichigo's presence. After his defeat at the hands of the capable young Soul Reaper, politics and procedures be damned.

Sliding his massive hands beneath the gargantuan door, Jidanbō employed the universal method of lifting that is always suggested but never employed, using his legs instead of shifting the heavy burden with his back. Bracing the door upon his shoulders, the Gatekeeper wished them luck and bid them farewell as they hurried past, before letting the door slam back down with a thunderous crash.

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"So let me get this straight: after the creepy bitch in the goggles kidnapped you, during the MIDDLE OF THE DAY, she led you to her partner who had already retrieved my Entry Plug, before opening this…._portal_….thing….and a few minutes later you come out of it and it's the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!"

The sarcasm and disbelief seemed to be lost on Shinji as he replied. "I think they're sisters, but yeah, that's what happened."

The lithe redhead threw her arms in the air in exasperation. "_Mein Gott in Himmel!_ How stupid do you think I am!"

Shinji ignored the outburst, he himself finding it hard to believe even after witnessing it all himself. "Where are we going?"

Asuka marched forward with unrelenting determination. "To find out what the hell's going on around here!" She was still seething after that freak in the goggles had the audacity to say such things to her face.

The hallway was deserted. Apparently, Gabby had in fact disappeared into whatever passed for a kitchen down here, while the older blonde Shinji had told her about had yet to make an appearance. Her companion was all for waiting until their captors came back and explained the situation, but Asuka preferred a more direct approach. Somehow, she felt the most accurate information would be that which they acquired themselves, rather than being provided with by parties unknown. The first revelation was that this was by no means a typical military installation.

A little more exploration on Shinji's part lead to the discovery that the two paintings the pair had discovered on the walls were album covers from the Beatles, the two in question being Abbey Road and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The young EVA pilots merely had to turn a corner to gain an understanding of how truly unorthodox this team of operatives really was. Not a single visible wall in the hallway had been spared; as far as they could see, the government-issue blandness had been hidden behind all manners of hand-painted artwork, ranging from movie posters to album covers to graffiti. Their attempts at stealth were subconsciously aided by their need to take in at least a fraction of what they were presented with, hoping perhaps to pick up some clues as to where they were.

Some of the most elaborate were also considerably bizarre. One painting depicted a group of men dressed identically in black domino masks, gold shirts, black short pants, black helmets with bat ears, and enormous belt buckles depicting a cartoon figure in a cape. Of the eight men pictured, one was riding a motorcycle, one was in a sports car, two were wielding electric guitars, one was holding up a cat by the scruff of the neck, and another was holding a plotted plant. All of them seemed to be fighting a large plastic eyeball under the caption: THE AQUABATS VS. THE FLOATING EYE OF DEATH!

One that held Asuka's attention was that of a blonde man in a black leather coat and jeans riding a unicorn, inspirationally framed by sunlight and clouds. She wasn't sure who NPH was, and therefore had no idea how to answer the displayed question of WHAT WOULD NPH DO?

A few of the walls didn't possess such dramatic care, displaying messily written one sentence phrases that, while unable to place, sounded like the possessed some form of importance. FRODO LIVES! and WHO WATCHES THE WATCHMEN? were just a few.

The duo passed half a dozen locked and nondescript doorways, divided into three pairs that faced each other across the hallway. The next door looked more promising. It was the same stainless steel as all the others, polished to a reflective surface, but this one had the name LIZ painted on the face, in the spot where a peephole would usually be located. Asuka crept up and thumbed the switch in the doorframe, causing it to slide silently open. Despite Shinji's protests, she snuck inside.

Like the common room the two pilots had been left in, this room was comfortably furnished, looking more like a cross between a woman's bedroom and a den, effectively deceiving the fact that they were actually in a secret underground bunker. Wooden bookshelves lines the walls, filled to overflowing with books, DVDs, and other paraphernalia. The opposite wall was dominated by a large 4 four-poster bed, facing another flat screen television on the wall, this one slightly smaller than the massive viewing screen in the recreation room. A personal computer sat against the wall on the right, next to which stood a large antique desk littered with file folders, loose papers, and a thick book.

Asuka cautiously tiptoed towards the center of the room for a better look. There was an open doorway in the farthest wall to the left, the view showing it to be a bathroom. The sounds of running water told her the occupant was currently in the shower, allowing her a few moments of freedom. She made her way to the desk and began to sift through the contents, only giving a passing glance to the framed shadowbox mounted on the wall at eye level. It contained a dated concert flyer and an aged admissions ticket bearing the same information, in addition to four signatures and a personalized message.

The largest piece of paper was, to her surprise, something she recognized right away: a topographical map of Tokyo 3. These were accompanied by several 8" x 11" glossy photographs, depicting satellite images of the same area. The last rolls of paper were slightly more disturbing. Asuka had to stare at them for awhile before she realized she was looking at a detailed layout of NERV. Whoever these people were, they had done their research.

The Second Child set the first pile of papers to the side before moving onto the next. Star Charts. She really wasn't an expert in this type of thing, but an astronomy class from her distant years in high school told her she was looking at a part of the night sky she had never seen before. This really didn't hold much interest, OR any answers as to what was going on, so she set it off to the side and moved on to the third and final pile of papers on the desk, being careful to leave minimal evidence of her disturbances.

Shinji had finally mustered up enough strength to join his companion in her invasive activities, but Asuka paid him little mind, her attention focused on the schematics before her. They were blueprints, the first of which were of her own EVA Unit 02. Asuka hurriedly flipped through them. All of the Evangelions were represented, the Mass Production Units included. Shaking off the feeling of dread at just how much these people knew, the redhead kept probing, finding other mechanical creations further down in the pile.

These sketches depicted some type of large mechanized battle armor, though much smaller than and Evangelion. She had never seen anything quite like it, but stopped herself from dismissing it as science fiction. After all, if NERV can build a giant robot, what's to stop someone from building a large one? The last machine depicted was easily the most baffling.

The craft was huge. Here and there, Asuka spotted what she recognized as nautical terms thanks to her brief stay aboard the NATO aircraft carrier when the Pacific Fleet was transporting EVA Unit 02 to Japan. There didn't appear to be an open deck. In fact, the airtight construction led her to the conclusion that she was looking at a submarine. The largest and weirdest submarine she had ever seen.

"Hey, Shinji. Look at this…" Asuka moved to the side, allowing him a clear view of the mysterious craft in question.

Shinji peered at the pages questioningly. "ND-001? It looks like a spaceship…."

His suggestion was met with a stinging blow to the back of the head. "Baka-Shinji! This isn't Star Wars!"

Asuka shoved the blueprints to the side and reached for the final item.

The notebook was a sturdy one: a well-worn black leather cover held a simple pad of paper that could be replaced if need be. From the looks of the cover's age and the whiteness of the paper, it had probably been changed several times.

Asuka flipped it open to the first page.

There were around twelve names scribbled on the sheet, each of which was followed by a series of numbers. The only ones she recognized were the first three: Shinji Ikari, Misato Katsuragi, and Asuka Langley Soryu. All three names possessed the same number sequence: 24-32-61-51-8-4. Asuka and Shinji had been crossed off, while Misato's was circled.

And what was the deal with the markings on the first page? Why were the pilots' names crossed off? Were Asuka and Shinji marked as being taken care of? Was Misato circled because she was the next target of abduction? Asuka suggested this to her solemn companion, before marveling that anyone could look even more depressed than he had just seconds before.

Shinji's voice dropped to a pitiful squeak. "I don't think that's it, Asuka. Misato's….Misato's dead."

Asuka was left, once again, without a reply. After everything that had happened to them that day, Shinji was finally able to come out with it. The thing that had been weighing down upon him this entire time. True, Asuka wasn't particularly fond of the alcoholic guardian. Hell, she had even wished death upon the bitch who had actually managed to do with Kaji what she herself could only dream about. But to find out that she was dead….

Not knowing what to say, the Second Child was about to busy herself with the rest of the notebook when a sudden absence of sound caused her and the Third to turn abruptly towards the bathroom. The sounds of running water had stopped. Asuka tucked the notebook into her pocket as she pulled her cohort out the door, not giving him enough time to stop and look back at whatever it was he felt snag against the doorknob.

"Come on, Baka. We're getting out of here."

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Rukia steered the gang towards a side street as per Sarah's request that they keep out of the plain sight, but they first had to cross a large open courtyard. Walking briskly and trying their best to act somewhat casual, the quintet had succeeded in reaching the mouth of the alley when their cover was effectively blown.

"Well, well, what do we have here? The Ryoka have returned, and in greater numbers. What's the deal Ichigo? Planning a widespread invasion of the Soul Society?"

All eyes searched for the source of the voice as the group stopped cold in its tracks. There, perched on a rooftop of one of the buildings lining the exact street they had had the misfortune of choosing, was one of the last people one would want to run into in this, or any other plain of existence: a large brute of a man that could easily pass for a serial killer in civilized society. The small figure with pink hair perched on his shoulder helped somewhat to relieve the feeling of terror as she waved frantically, grinning wide.

The Captain of Squad 11, Kenpachi Zaraki, had a physical appearance that effectively matched his personality, each or which was exceptionally wild and aggressive. He styled his black hair into spikes, tipping them with bells, and always wore a patch over his right eye so as to handicap himself in battle. At 6'7.5", Kenpachi towered over most of his fellow Soul Reapers, and stood at over twice the height of his Lieutenant, Yachiru Kusajishi.

Like her Captain, Yachiru's personality was also reflected in her appearance. Anyone who looked at the tiny, pink haired Shinigami and assumed she was a child could converse with her for roughly ten seconds and discover that this assumption was correct. Aside from being small, cheerful, energetic and carefree, Yachiru possessed incredible speed and strength, which she would put to use from time to time when she needed to pick up her Captain and carry him. Her appearance was also significantly offset by the fact that she was acting president of the Soul Reaper Women's Association.

A terrified shiver ran up Ichigo's spine at the sight of the muscle-bound hulk, memories of the truly suffocating level of spiritual pressure he possessed causing an uneasy lurch in his stomach. Then, he got an idea. An awful idea. The substitute Soul Reaper got a wonderful, awful idea. True, they couldn't rightly bring themselves to beat the truth out of Sarah, but Kenpachi would have no such qualms. They had already been caught, so there was no reason they couldn't let someone they knew employ a little intimidation to get to the bottom of things.

"This time it wasn't our idea Kenpachi. If you really want to know what's going on, why don't you ask her?" Ichigo nodded towards Sarah with a satisfied smirk. "We followed her over to the other side. She says she has business to attend to, but she doesn't seem to be talking…"

Rukia's head jerked slightly before she stared at him, knowing what he was up to almost instantly and not at all happy with it. Chad remained his usual impassive self while Orihime shuffled nervously from foot to foot, suddenly very afraid for the girl she liked to think of as a friend, despite knowing almost nothing about her. Kenpachi shifted his focus to perhaps the least intimidating of the group, even more so than Orihime, as the shark-like smile widened.

The miniature person perched on his back squeaked delightedly. "Did you hear that, Kenny? Someone new for you to play with!" Her Captain nodded his agreement before addressing Sarah.

"I don't know if Ichigo and his friends filled you in, Miss, but before I let you pass, you're gonna have to fight me. Now, I see that you are unarmed. That's fine by me, we'll just have to compromise. If you can land just one hit, you win. Likewise, I will refrain from instantly killing you. Maybe I'll be satisfied with just taking a limb." Kenpachi's one visible eye gleamed. "Maybe…."

Ichigo glanced over at Sarah, eager to see her sweating it out. He nearly did a double take. She had backed into something of a defensive stance, her forward foot tapping anxiously, an eager grin creeping across her face. Her eyes had narrowed to predatory slits, twinkling with an evil little flame that had not been there moments before. 'No way,' Ichigo thought to himself. 'She's actually _itching _for a fight with him!'

Everyone else in the group seemed to be getting the same vibe as well. Rukia hissed at her from the corner of her mouth through clenched teeth, whispering so as not to be overheard by the very frightening individual in their midst. _"Sarah, what do you think your doing! Do you have any idea who this is?"_

Sarah didn't look at her as she answered, keeping her eyes focused on the most likely opponent. The group of students jumped slightly at the unfamiliar sound of her voice. There was something almost sinister in the way she let the words slip past her smirking lips. "Of course I do. Kenpachi Zaraki, Captain of Squad 11: probably the most dangerous individual in the Seireitei. There are two types of people in this world: those he's thought about killing, and those he hasn't met yet. Well, okay, so there's a third group made up of dead people…."

"Exactly!" Rukia pleaded. "He'll rip you apart!" While their own inner circle had reached a level of something close to being welcome in this world, she knew that there were certain people who would always be looking for an excuse to get their hands, and swords, dirty.

"Relax." Sarah exhaled slowly, her words full of confidence, as well as something else. Her voice sounded very much like it didn't belong to her, especially after what she said next.

"I think I can take him…."

Ichigo, Rukia, Orihime and Chad could only stare at her, openmouthed, trying to comprehend what was going through her mind at that moment. Things only grew more bizarre when the smile vanished from Sarah's face, her eyes growing wide with a combination of surprise/fear. Suddenly, the mysterious new student slapped herself as hard as she could.

There were an uncomfortable few seconds while she dropped to her knees, on the verge of hyperventilating as she clutched her head in her hands. Everyone, including Kenpachi, looked on with

confusion. After a moment of this, Sarah shook her head in an attempt to clear her thoughts as she climbed to her feet, the nervous and shy features she usually displayed at school present once again.

She grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about that….I've got a really bad habit of picking fights I have no chance of winning..." She smiled at Ichigo, and for a split second that evil little flash returned to her eyes, sending a chill down his spine. It vanished just as quickly, but the smile remained as she addressed her travel companions en masse.

"Listen guys, I'm about to do something kinda bad, but seriously, no hard feelings." The girl didn't wait for a reply as she took a dozen steps off to the side, separating herself from the group. For a few little period of time, Orihime was afraid she was thinking about fighting Kenpachi again.

Sarah pointed towards the tiny shape on Kenpachi's shoulder, snapping her fingers as she tried to remember a name. "Uh….umm…Yachi…Yachiru! Hey, Yachiru! Could I talk to you in private for a moment? Pretty please?"

The tiny Soul Reaper leapt from her Captain's shoulder and ran over to where the stranger was crouched low to the ground, a psychological attempt to make her subject more comfortable. Sarah leaned in close, encouraging her new cohort to do the same, before she began whispering in conspiratory tones. The tiny figure listened intently, the same joyful smirk never leaving her youthful face. As Sarah concluded her secret meeting, she took something out of her pocket and discreetly handed it to the small Lieutenant. Yachiru's eyes widened with glee as she accepted the gift, pocketing it quickly. As it disappeared into the folds of her Shinigami robes, Orihime could just make out the shiny foil of a candy bar wrapper.

Her allegiances effectively secured, the tiny pink-haired girl spun on her heel, waving her arms to gain Kenpachi's attention. It was an unnecessary action: seeing as Yachiru was one of the few people Kenpachi truly cared for, her every movement had been observed carefully as she conversed with the stranger, her Captain ready to dispatch the newcomer at a moment's notice should she present a threat to his Lieutenant.

"Hey, Kenny!" Yachiru pointed to Sarah over her shoulder. "She's got a big important meeting she has to go to, and if she's really late, her sisters will get mad and she'll be in a lot of trouble! But Ichigo told her he'd play with you while she took care of things!"

The entirety of the group was speechless, no one quite sure if they had heard that right. Ichigo actually had to choke back a laugh once the absurdity of that statement had truly set in. He turned to where Kenpachi was perched on the rooftop, expecting to share a good laugh with the large, frightening man.

"Hey, Kenpachi! Can you believe this girl-" Ichigo leapt out of the way a split second before the blade would have found its target, the force of the blow shattering the ground where he had just been standing. A lock of orange hair flitted quietly to the ground, a testament to truly just how close its owner had come to having his head split open like a ripe melon. The huge Shinigami slowly straitened

up from the crouch he had landed in, the malicious sneer curling across his face made all the more sinister by the scar permanently marking his features.

"Sounds good to me Yachiru. Alright, Ichigo Kurosaki. Tag. I'm it."

The color draining from his face was the only action Ichigo had time for before he was forced to dodge a second stone shattering blow. There were a brief couple of seconds for him to think of what to do next. He used them to go over his options and select the best way to handle the situation. Then, he turned around and ran like Hell.

Yachiru took off after them, reluctant to miss out on any of the fun as she shouted goodbyes to everyone while flitting past in the blink of an eye, the sword that she carried being the only thing that kept her from looking like a pixie.

Three pairs of eyes watched as the trio disappeared around a far bend in the street, the first in line screaming in horror as the two in pursuit laughed hysterically. As they disappeared, Rukia, Orihime and Chad turned to the person responsible, hoping for some explanation or maybe even an apology.

Sarah stood up, brushing the dirt from her knee before wiping it from her hands. "Alright, now we can go." Without waiting for a response she turned down the now unguarded street, making her way further into the Seireitei.

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"Maybe we should just stay here."

Asuka spun on her heel, launching into a verbal assault that should hopefully quell her spineless cohort's protests. "Are you crazy, or just stupid! We don't know anything about them! They were wearing SEELE uniforms, for God's sake! And how do they know so much about us!"

Shinji tried feebly to stand his ground. "But I saw your Entry plug, Asuka! You should be dead right now! They saved you!"

Asuka didn't have a reply to that: truly, she just didn't want to think about what may have happened to her earlier that day. Her purposeful strides were not halted, however, as they now found themselves in the cavernous chamber through which they had entered. Just like when they had first arrived, the underground hanger was deserted. Shinji voiced this revelation to Asuka. "Do you think it could be just the two of them down here?"

Asuka didn't answer, her attention drawn to the tan and black behemoth in front of her. The hulking form of the MRAP sat right where they left it, dwarfing the newcomers who dared enter its domain. The redheaded EVA pilot made her way forward slowly, reaching out a trembling hand and running it over the steel surface. It was surprisingly warm. She could have sworn she felt something. A soft rumble emanating from deep within near the center, but not from the hood where an engine knock could be expected. There was something unsettling about this machine. A prickling of the hairs on the back of her neck gave the impression that she was being watched.

Unwanted memories came flooding back, despite her best attempts at repressing them: Her fight with the EVAs. Her violent and absolute defeat. Lying helplessly in a pool of LCL as she experienced a level of pain that she could never have possibly imagined. Her stubborn refusal to die. But there was something else….

The SEELE troops had been coming for her, looking for proof of her demise and ready to rectify the situation if they found none. The troops turned away from her as an explosion erupted in the distance. They started firing at something. There was something large moving towards them, a combination of thundering footsteps and a rolling juggernaut that crushed all in its path. The movements reminded her near-dead mind of rollerblading. It was standing over her now, blocking out the sunlight. In a cruelly ironic mirroring of her attempt to reach out for salvation moments before being skewered by the EVAs' weapons, the thing above reached down for her with its gargantuan claw, light shining off its skin like it was made of metal.

Shinji's calling of her name snapped her out of her painful and foggy recollections. "Hey Asuka, what do you think this thing is?"

Asuka followed her coconspirator's voice to where he was standing before the sphere, running a cautious hand experimentally over one of its curved components. The thirty-foot globe was recessed into the floor about six feet deep, and was made up of ten concentric rings of varying sizes, one inside the other, all around a smaller orb in the very center of the sphere. A large shaft stretched from the middle of the perfectly round crater, straight up through the bottom of each ring, pierced the central orb, and then continued through the tops of each ring before ending in a capped disc. The entire assembly was built from some sort of indeterminable metal. Was it some sort of abstract art?

Asuka elbowed Shinji out of the way, placing her own hands where his had been until recently. The metal was cool to the touch, completely solid. She ran her fingers along the surface, looking for any sort of bolts, seems, or other tells of a manufacturing process. She found none. Just for the hell of it, she braced her legs against the concrete floor and pushed against the outermost ring, which must have weighed several tons. It spun freely, showing perfect balance and no signs of friction. Asuka's single push caused two complete revolutions before it slowed to a stop.

There was an emblem etched into one of the girders, a fine layer of scorch marks requiring the pilot to scrape away some of the residue with her fingernail before she could read the single word inside a spiral embedded within a hexagon: ORCHID. Well, that sort of made sense. It _did_ kind of look like a big flower…

Shinji directed his attention to the cables spreading out from the central hub, snaking across the floor to the side of the hangar. He started to follow them, but stopped cold when they ended abruptly, rectangular clamps left haphazardly where they had fallen. He spun around, searching for what he knew should be there, but wasn't. The enormous tank was missing, as was the gargantuan helicopter. The covering tarps were stashed in a pile up against the wall. In the brief hours since they had been brought here, the two vehicles had been moved silently and by individuals unknown.

"Seriously Asuka; all those locked rooms, no guards or technicians anywhere….I don't think there's anybody here except those two girls." Still receiving no reply, Shinji looked up to see what his fiery tempered companion was busying herself with.

Asuka was standing in front of the painted emblem he had seen on the way in. Now that it was brought back to his attention, he finally had the chance to ask a question that had been nagging at him since his arrival, insignificant as it was when compared to the numerous other goings on. "What's the _Legion of Doom_?"

"Baka Shinji….Look at the way it's painted! Why would anyone name their base something that stupid, AND use such an exaggerated font? It's OBVIOUSLY supposed to be a joke!" Asuka's tirade continued, allowing her to vent some of her overwhelming frustration. "You might as well call it Camp Dracula…" Asuka leaned forward and ran her hand over the words embedded in the middle of the fictitious name, their circle making up the O in OF. These words were engraved into the wall, suggesting much more credibility. "Hanso Foundation, on the other hand…."

"Hey, I think I found the Exit!" The excitement in his voice betrayed the joy he felt at the prospect of actually proving useful.

"Are you sure?" Asuka looked over to where Shinji was standing before an opening that led to a long hallway. He was looking at something up above the doorway. Asuka's gaze followed his, wondering what he had seen. There was a red lighted sign bolted to the wall: EXIT.

Shinji looked at her sheepishly. "I'm pretty sure…"

Asuka delivered a none-too gentle punch to his arm as she strode past. "Smartass…."

Once again, Shinji was experiencing tinges of déjà vu as the angry girl in front of him led them down a hallway on the way to the surface. It had only been a few hours since Gabby had lead him to the surface above the GeoFront and to her companion in the behemoth vehicle, but it felt like days since he had set eyes upon anything even vaguely familiar. The bare metal walls he and the others were accustomed to at NERV were still absent, the surrounding surfaces of this hallway covered with paintings of band logos, movie posters, and enormous panels in succession forming gigantic comic strips. These people obviously weren't big fans of the uniform blandness that tends to accompany government and military life. Shinji found himself slowing down in an attempt to take in at least some of the artwork around him, only to be yanked forward by the iron willed Asuka, who shared no interest in the surrounding décor. The young German kept a steady pace with a solid grip on her captive, barreling forward despite the fact that she herself had no clear ideas as to where they were headed.

The door at the end of the hall opened up into an ascending stairwell, and after several dozen flights of stairs, they had reached the very top. The landing did not hold the expected doorway marked EXIT, but rather a ladder recessed into the wall and leading to a trapdoor in the ceiling ten feet above their heads.

There were half a dozen thick, down filled coats hanging on hooks next to the ladder. They each grabbed one, the proximity of the coats to the exit suggesting that they would be needed. Asuka, as always, went up the ladder first; the fact that she was wearing jeans instead of a skirt saved Shinji the usual kick to the face.

The recessed ladder ended in a square trap door locked firmly in place with a spinning wheel. Asuka was forced to throw her shoulder into it before the seal broke, the mechanism spinning stiffly. She kept twisting the lock until she hit the stops. The hatch was surprisingly heavy, but the Second Child was able to manage by planting her feet against the rungs of the ladder and pushing with both hands. The cover flipped up and over, thudding heavily against the floor topside.

The shack they had found themselves in was roughly fifteen feet across and square. Moonlight streamed through the grungy windows, illuminating the thick layer of dust on every surface. Bear traps and nets were hanging on the walls. A pile of fishing poles sat in the corner, their lines tangled and unusable. Asuka climbed up and waited until Shinji was clear before closing the trapdoor behind them. The metal hatch was disguised perfectly, fitting into a recessed section of the floorboards. The entry to the underground bunker was hidden completely by this fishing hut. While she examined the floor, Shinji went to the heavy wooden door and pulled it open cautiously, at least a little curious as to what he would find.

It was incredible. The lake stretched perhaps a mile long and two across, its crystalline blue surface acting as a perfect mirror for the snowcapped mountains beyond the opposite shore. A dense forest of spruce and pine dominated the terrain in every direction. Shinji's gaze drifted upward, drawn there by an irregularity reflected in the water. He wasn't sure what he was looking at, but he knew it was one of the most incredible things he had ever seen.

"Asuka…check it out…."

It was as though the sky was on fire. Waves of color washed over them in the darkness, undulating rhythms of blue and green interspersed with the occasional red. The lights almost acted as a magnifying glass, amplifying the blanket of stars above them to a brilliant intensity. And the stars. The sheer number of them far surpassed anything he had ever seen before, the lack of manmade lights allowing the heavens to dominate the night sky. The sight would have been breathtaking even without the added unearthly illumination.

"What is it?" Shinji's question shocked Asuka out of her own mesmerized trance. She loved to rub in the fact that she knew more than him. No matter how crummy she was feeling, the ability to flaunt her intelligence was even more satisfying than flaunting her body at this spineless wimp.

"Don't you know anything? That's the aurora borealis. Auroras are produced by the collision of atoms and molecules from the upper atmosphere with charged particles from the Earth's magnetosphere. It's a seasonal occurrence that used to take place in the farthest reaches of the northern and southern hemispheres until…."

Asuka's lecture lost all momentum as the truth of what she was saying suddenly began to shine with the same intensity as the literally unearthly glow above them. Her next words were little more than a whisper. "Until the Second Impact screwed up the atmosphere…"

She was shaking now, forced to consider the possibility that Shinji's story of a swirling portal may have some truth to it. Her short, shuddering breaths were clearly visible in the cool air. All the fear and confusion that was coursing through her made itself evident in her whispered voice.

"Shinji…where the Hell are we?"

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"I still can't believe you sold him out like that…" Rukia shook her head disapprovingly, secretly hiding the humor she felt over how easily he had been played.

The resident Shinigami led the way, Sarah following closely behind Orihime and Chad as the quartet made its way deeper and deeper into the Seireitei. Ichigo's screams of terror and desperation were still being heard off in the distance as the group finally came to the offices of the Gotei 13. Sticking to the back alleys and less traveled streets, the gang succeeded in reaching the Squad 10 headquarters unmolested. Rukia slid open the door and ushered the others inside.

Tōshirō Hitsugaya, the Captain of Squad 10, was seated at his desk, working fervently through a large stack of paperwork. The Shinigami was very young by Soul Society standards, his age reflected in a physical size similar to that of Rukia's. He possessed white spiky hair and emerald eyes, causing the unfortunate effect of standing out considerably whenever he entered the human world. Despite his young appearance, Hitsugaya was extremely serious and mature, the near polar opposite of his Lieutenant whom they were apparently here to see.

"Tōshirō-kun!" Orihime waved enthusiastically, genuinely glad to see pretty much anyone she had ever met before. The diminutive Soul Reaper looked up from his work, for the first time fully aware of the intrusion.

"Oh…Hello, Orihime." He looked the group over, his attention falling on the shortest of the five. "Rukia. You're back early. I thought you still have another week of vacation." He then motioned towards the stranger in their midst. "I wasn't aware we were now running tours of the Seireitei."

Sarah stepped forward, cutting off Rukia's response. "Captain Hitsugaya? I'm looking for Rangiku Matsumoto."

The Captain of Squad 10 cocked an eyebrow. "And you are?"

A sly smile crept across her face. "My name is Sarah Grant. I'm Tiffany's kid."

Hitsugaya regarded her with a confused look for a few seconds. Then, as realization began to set in, his eyes grew wider and wider in response, until he was staring at her with mouth agape.

The young Captain continued to stare at Sarah in silence for a few moments. Then, the impressive speed of a Shinigami was put on display as he leapt over the desk and crossed the room before his pen even had time to hit the floor. He darted around the group, ushering them into the middle of the room as he threw open the door, peering back and forth fervently for fear that his guests had been seen. Satisfied that they had not garnered too much attention, he spun around and addressed Rukia.

"Whatever she told you, believe me when I tell you that it's not as bad as it sounds!"

Everyone in the group looked at him questioningly, with the exception of Sarah, who walked over and flopped down into a chair. Rukia finally decided to speak up, Soul Reaper to Soul Reaper. "Captain Hitsugaya, she won't tell us anything. But Urahara vouched for her, and she knows quite a few people over here, so she's obviously not an ordinary human. You don't have to worry about us blabbing, but just what the hell is going on here?" Whatever the short Shinigami was about to say to the OTHER short Shinigami was cut off by the office door being thrown open.

Lieutenant Rangiku Matsumoto could be considered an extremely attractive woman. Her long blonde hair and icy blue eyes only served to enhance her beauty, while the jaw dropping size of her breasts helped to accentuate a figure that would already turn heads. As if the size of her bust weren't enough, she insisted on wearing her Shinigami robes open down the front, more than showing off her impressive assets. She was one of the few people who shared Orihime's bizarre taste in food, and her laid back nature and hatred of paperwork was probably one of the reasons that her Captain's workload was so large.

Matsumoto waltzed into the room, waving a bottle of sake in the air. "Hey Captain, you ready to call it a day yet? It's almost noon!" Her huge grin remained plastered on her face even after seeing that they had visitors. "Awesome! The more the merrier!" But then her eyes fell upon the girl sitting in her chair. The bottle of sake slipped from her grasp, smashing on the floor and soaking the hem of her robes. Her full lips were trembling as she stared wide-eyed at the newcomer.

"Oh, shit…."

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Wow…two months and one week since I last updated this. Well, to try and make it up to you, this is the longest chapter I have ever written in my life. Also, the next chapter is nearly finished as well. See you next week, and that's a promise.

So, there you go. If you've read this far, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I know you have questions, because that's kinda what I'm aiming for. And update after next, 90 of them will be answered. I know I haven't given you guys much, but rest assured, the payoff is very, VERY close. I promise you, any and all doubts will be put to rest very soon.

As always, I want to thank Darkbusterrancher for his help with Beta. I also want to give a shout out to Rose1948, Lord of Demise, gunman, DarklightZERO, animefan29, dylanredefined, RahXephon, Escalus,

and rhamiel506 for taking the time to review this thing. Anyone else out there who's actually reading this, if you enjoy it, please let me know.

P.S.

Yes, I KNOW it took me over two months for this update, please refrain from reminding me.


	4. Alcohol

Before anyone bites my head off for failure to update within the promised week, I actually DID, with my massive restructure of Chapter One and the removal of the Prologue. So there.

Now, one of the problems I've had with this current chapter is that I would sit at it for a week with the intent of finishing it, but had no idea what to write or what I could do to improve it; although I was sure it needed SOMETHING. Is that Writer's Block? Or did I just realize I suck? I'm not quite sure.

As to taking so long to get THIS chapter posted, getting a new laptop while simultaneously starting school AND having to work without a BETA can be hell. Oh, and I also started another story that should have the first chapter posted by now. Sorry for the wait.

**ALCOHOL: THE CAUSE OF, AND SOLUTION TO, ALL OF LIFE'S PROBLEMS**

Elizabeth's bit down on her lower lip as she struggled to steady her aim, knowing what had to be done if one of her two sisters were to be saved, but still hating herself for what she had done even as she tried to process what it was she had to do. Committing herself, she squeezed the trigger.

The gun fired.

For a brief second, Elizabeth could do nothing but stare. All the self disgust over what she had allowed to happen to her sister, as well as the horror over what she had just done to fix things, was replaced by a trembling wave of shock and no small sense of awe as she watched the bullet hole appear in the wall where a split-second earlier Sarah's head had rested.

Her oldest younger sibling, still covered in her own blood and sitting in the exact same spot on the floor, had only moved her head a few inches, but had done it so quickly and in such short notice before the gun's report that Elizabeth failed to suppress the chill that ran down her spine.

Sarah looked up at her older sister, eyes caked with fresh blood that had yet to dry, and she smiled. A joyless, sinister little smile, made even worse by the crimson staining her usually spotless teeth. But that alone wouldn't have been nearly as unsettling if not for her eyes. To put it simply, they didn't belong to her. The emerald green eyes still retained their clarity and color, but they were not the same eyes that had looked at her pleadingly to end her life mere moments before, nor were they the eyes that had looked up to her for as long as she could remember. It was in that instant that Elizabeth realized the worst case scenario had in fact happened: Sarah wasn't dead. Sarah was gone.

The girl leapt up and struck out her left hand, knocking the gun from Elizabeth's startled grasp. Then, in a single fluid movement, she covered the distance between them, lashing out with her right hand, her fingers finding purchase around her older sister's throat as she pushed violently forward, smashing Elizabeth against the opposite wall. She took another step forward, lifting the taller girl off her feet with one hand, intent on squeezing the life out of her.

Gabby stood off to the side, frozen in place. Her face was etched with fear, the horror and shock clearly visible in her eyes. She hadn't started wearing the goggles yet. Those were about a decade down the road.

Liz's vision began to blur as her former sister's fingers clenched tighter around her neck, slowly crushing her windpipe. She frantically searched her face for some sign of recognition, some trace of her little sister. There was nothing. The soft emerald eyes were sharp and cold, her usual stoic grin replaced by a leering smile. Both of Elizabeth's hands clawed at the single wrist that was holding her aloft. Muscles were visibly straining just beneath the smaller girl's taut flesh….muscles that should be nowhere near that strong.

Her lungs were burning now, the lack of oxygen bringing on the first waves of tunnel vision. She could barely see the sinister little sneer disappear from her assailant's face as her head jerked forward. Ever so slowly, the stranger's head craned around, allowing Liz to see the stream of blood oozing down from the back of her skull. Gradually, her own vision fell upon what used to be Sarah's focus. Gabby was standing there, the gun held at arm's length, both hands shaking very badly as she leveled the weapon at her older sister who was currently in the process of strangling her oldest sister. The butt of the gun's handle dripped crimson onto the floor after the violent crack Gabby had tried to deliver to the back of Sarah's head. Sarah didn't give the slightest inclination that she really minded the concussion.

Sarah merely stared at her little sister in what seemed to be confusion for a few seconds, perhaps considering the best way to rip her limb from limb. She looked like she was about to lunge forward and carry out whatever course of action she had decided upon, but she seemed to be having trouble taking those first steps, all her strength focused on keeping her oldest sister in the air. She shook her head slightly in disbelief. Apparently the concussion HAD had an effect on her…..Sarah slowly turned her face back towards her captive.

For the first time, it spoke. The cold, piercing eyes and superhuman strength weren't the only features that clearly didn't belong to Sarah. If one were unsure about the snake-like tone of voice belonging to an entity other than the teenage girl, the way it addressed itself left no doubts. Her words dripped with venom.

"I guess I'm not quite ready to make my grand entrance….but have no fear kiddies, I won't be far away. Oh, and don't worry too much about your lovely sister….I'll be keeping a VERY close eye on her…."

Sarah winked. Then, as her arms and legs began to tremble, the newfound strength leaving her body, her eyes rolled back into her head. The last thing Elizabeth saw before she blacked out was oldest little sister collapsing in a heap.

Elizabeth lurched awake, cracking her head against the wall of the shower in the process. She looked around in confusion, the hot water continuing to cascade over her, her short blonde hair plaster over her face. Struggling to her feet, she rubbed at the throbbing sensation emanating from the back of her skull.

That damn nightmare. Over and over. But no….it was more than that. Nightmares were usually unrealized manifestations of someone's fears; in her case, her inability to protect her little sisters. But no….they were more than nightmares.

They were flashbacks.

Usually she could get some sleep without being assaulted by memories of her greatest failure, when she had so horribly let her sisters down. Recently, they had been occurring less and less frequently, only popping in for a horrid little hello when she felt one of her siblings was in trouble. It took all of her willpower not to hop on a plane naked and make her way to Japan.

And do what? Follow Sarah into the Afterlife? Elizabeth chastised herself as she made her way into the main part of her bedroom, pulling on clothes as she went. Walking out the door, she paused as she passed her desk, glancing at the papers littering its surface. She only had to give them a onceover to know something was amiss. Sighing at the intrusion into her private domain, she went in search of those responsible.

Making her way down the hall, Elizabeth spotted her youngest sister, as well as the only sibling within a thousand mile radius. Gabby was struggling to press the door switch of one of the electrically-charged nanite chambers. The task was made increasingly difficult by the bundle of groceries in her arms: raw crab legs, uncooked pasta, a jug of milk, butter, and various vegetables and seasonings. She had just managed to press the button, the door sliding silently open, when Elizabeth leapt forward and hit it a second time, the door slamming shut.

Elizabeth rounded on her sister. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I'm making dinner. Duh."

Liz could only stare at her silently for a few moments, struggling for a response. "You're gonna make the _Nanites_ do it for us again! What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking I'm getting pretty damn hungry!"

"Then cook it yourself!" She waved her hands sarcastically in her sister's face. "You know, with these!"

Gabby sighed with exhaustion. "What crawled up your ass? We have them do it all the time!"

Elizabeth ran her fingers through her hair, letting out a frustrated breath. "You know the kind of energy signatures your boys give off while working. We just made a jump in the last twelve hours, not to mention the work we had to do on Katsuragi and Soryu…"

"Are you listening to yourself? Look: I'll take all this stuff, set it on the table in there, look at the screen, tell them what I want done, and by the time I turn around, it'll be done."

"Yeah, and in the meantime, this place will look like a giant microwave to any orbiting satellite with a decent radiation scanner." She placed a hand on her sister's shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze. "We don't want to make it any easier for _them_ to find us than it already is."

Gabby nodded reluctantly, knowing what her oldest sister said was true. Her shoulders drooped a little at the realization. "Seafood Alfredo for four? This is gonna be a bitch…"

"Don't worry Squirt…you've got plenty of time before dinner."

"Why do you say that? None of them have eaten anything in over twelve hours."

Elizabeth glanced back towards her room, where the notebook was missing from its usual place on her desk. "Because our guests have decided to go sightseeing, and it's fallen upon me to go round them up."

A mischievous smile crept across the youngest sister's face. "They were in your room, weren't they? Ooh….naughty, naughty….how freaked do you think they'll be when they figure out they're not in Kansas anymore?"

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Rangiku Matsumoto led the group across the grounds of the Seireitei, setting a brisk and somewhat frantic pace. Sarah followed right behind, seemingly unbothered by almost having to run to keep up, while Orihime, Chad and Rukia kept close to Toshiro, most of their questions going unanswered for the time being.

"You're sure you can find the person I'm looking for so quickly?" Sarah questioned their guide.

"Civilians usually aren't allowed into the Seireitei, and that would normally make it almost impossible to find this young woman if we were forced to search the Rukongai Districts. But Yoruichi insisted on doing this job, simply because she loves going to those other planes." Orihime, in a rare moment of clarity, caught something strange in that sentence.

"Other planes….you mean the land of the living? Why the use of plural?" Sarah answered, despite Matsumoto's annoyance at being interrupted only adding to her stress at the moment.

"You know the Captain of Squad 7? Whilst everyone in the group knew to whom Sarah was referring, the three Soul Reapers were the only ones who could identify the individual by name, so Rukia took it upon herself to pick up this line of questioning.

"Sajin Komamura? What about him?"

"What about him! He's a big anthropomorphic fox! How the hell do you explain that?"

"….You know, to be perfectly honest, I've never really thought about it before…." The short Shinigami with a bobbed haircut began to dwell on this new revelation, completely ignoring what her newest classmate was implying.

"Well, he obviously didn't come from the land of the living. But he HAS to have been alive at some point, and he'll be born again should he die here. So the simple truth of the matter is this: multiple planes of reality are sharing the same afterlife." Orihime, Rukia and Chad followed in silence, idly wondering if Sarah was insane despite the fact that she was kind of making sense. Only Toshiro and Rangiku knew just how accurate the statement had been.

"ANYWAY," Rangiku continued, "Yoruichi brought someone back yesterday: a young woman with long dark hair whose had a few close calls in the past." She was mostly interested in the goings on because there were a large number of soldiers killed by a small group who wasn't meant to be there. Her attention was drawn to this young woman when a member from that group collected her body and took it….elsewhere."

"Yoruichi brought the young woman back here to try and pump her for information, but one thing led to another, and….well…." Matsumoto had actually been on her way to join the changeling princess and the new arrival when she had been waylaid in the office. She was saved having to continue with her explanation as they arrived at their destination.

The bathhouse for the most part was a nondescript building, keeping in check with the military uniformity that dominated the Seireitei. Only its size gave away its individuality, as it was at least three times as wide and that many deep as any of the surrounding structures. The group paused in the street outside, all except Sarah, who boldly strode forward. She halted in the entryway when she realized she was alone and looked over her shoulder.

"You're not going to go back on this little deal, are you Ms. Matsumoto? I've traveled a long way, and you and I both have quite a bit at stake." Sarah disappeared into the building without waiting for a reply.

Matsumoto reluctantly started through the doorway. As everyone else made to follow, she held up her hand in a halting gesture.

"Please don't Captain. I've involved you too much as is. Could you all just stay out here and do me a huge favor? If the Imperial Guard shows up to take me away, please, PLEASE kill them?" Toshiro knew she was somewhat joking, but he nodded anyway, meaning it sincerely. His Lieutenant gave the group a nervous smile before spinning on the heel of her foot and following her pushy little visitor into the bathhouse.

The darker interior was in violent contrast to the bright daylight outside, and the blonde Shinigami only took a few steps before running into the brunette's back. Sarah was frozen in place, staring at the far end of the room.

The woman behind the counter was Caucasian, dressed in the black robes of a Shinigami while she attended to some paperwork. She was curvy and kind of short, with mousy brown hair and rectangular glasses. She was however without a weapon and the nametag on her chest that read 'TIFFANY' in both print and kanji signified her as an employee of the Seireitei Bath House.

A smile crept across Matsumoto's face in spite of herself, taking pleasure in her tormentor's discomfort. She might as well take advantage of the situation and have a little fun lest the stress become too unbearable. Rangiku stepped forward, placing both hands on Sarah's shoulders, resting her breasts against her back and her chin on the top of her head, smiling as sweetly as she possibly could.

"Good morning Mrs. Grant! I've got a visitor here to see you!" Rangiku could feel Sarah stiffen beneath her, a nervous chill running down her spine. The woman behind the counter looked up from her work with a hostess's smile, which vanished into a look of shock as she recognized her guests. There were a few tense moments of silence before Tiffany collected herself, smiling warmly once again, tears welling up in beneath her lenses.

"It's good to see you again, Sarah." The girl in Matsumoto's hands was shaking by now.

"It's good to see you too, Mom…."

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"Shinji…where the Hell are we?"

The subject in question tried to ignore the look of pleading in Asuka's eyes. That, coupled with her desperate tone of voice, was making him very uncomfortable indeed. Things tended to go poorly when other people were relying on him. He didn't want to question her decisions at times like this, but he was still considering the option that the two girls deep below them truly were on their side, and as such they would be far safer staying right where they were. At the same time, reminding Asuka of her former resolve may help to reignite her fiery self-confidence. "Are you sure we should make a run for it?"

The girl in front of him didn't answer immediately, still overtaken by the heavy weight pressed down upon her by the undulating lights in the sky above. Try as she might, there was no way to hide from the truth when it possessed such an overpowering and inescapable presence. He could see her doubts and fears chasing each other across her face, before they were suddenly extinguished by the sheer force of will that was Asuka Langley Soryu.

"Absolutely. Where's the road we came in on? It has to lead somewhere." Asuka seemed to collect herself, being able to focus on a goal that she could take physical action towards.

Shinji turned away from the lake, in the direction of the sprawling underground complex. "It's over that way." Asuka settled back into her element, striding forth with confidence and taking the lead as they ventured into the forest. There was a slight twinge of regret at having to leave the incredible scene behind. It vaguely occurred to Shinji how numb he felt: Asuka and he were trapped in this strange place, Misato was dead, and they were now making a desperate trek through the wilderness without any inclination as to where they were going.

The pair made their way through the forest for about fifteen minutes, the strange multicolored glow a constant presence. The lights of the aurora were made all the more unreal by the way they diffused through the canopy of evergreens all around them. Asuka was still slightly shaken by all of this, her rock hard demeanor threatening to crack under the strain of the unknown weighing down upon her from every angle. The pine forest pulled back like a curtain and the Second and Third Child came out upon the highway.

Shinji walked out into the middle of the pavement and looked as far as he could in either direction. There was no discernable difference. "Which way should we go?" It probably didn't matter, but it would probably be good for her to keep up the leadership role. The ploy seemed to have worked, as she perked up immediately when reminded of her superiority over her weak-willed companion.

"Left. We should definitely go left, since the other way will just take us back to that place. It might be easier for them to find us if we keep to the road, but we can also cover more ground. Come on Baka." Asuka gripped him by the collar on her way past and they continued their impromptu escape. The pavement made for easier going, but the surrounding wilderness and lack of civilization dampened their hopes of finding rescue. A mile or so passed before they saw the reflective sign by the side of the road.

Despite being late at night, the lights of the ever-present dancing aurora made it easy to read. That didn't necessarily make it any easier to comprehend, however. 'CICELY – 58 MILES, ANCHORAGE – 450 MILES'. Shinji was about to ask Asuka something, though not quite sure what. The silence was just starting to get to him, but the redhead's outburst fixed that: "SICILY! Why the HELL are we in Italy!"

It was one of the few times in recent memory where Shinji knew something that Asuka didn't. "Actually, I think Anchorage is in Alaska…" Asuka stared at him for a few seconds, shocked by both the revelation that Shinji was right and the fact that he had corrected her. Then she resumed her outburst.

"ALASKA! That's not much better than Italy! At least there we wouldn't have to worry about freezing to death!" Her angry exhalations were clearly visible, hanging in a thick cloud about her face and giving some proof of her claims. The sound of an approaching vehicle caused both to whip around as a pair of headlights appeared in the distance. Asuka moved quickly, pulling Shinji close behind her as she dove for the ditch.

They rolled to a stop and kept still, but Shinji failed to keep quiet. "Shouldn't we try to hitch a ride?"

His fiery-tempered comrade looked at him like he had lobsters crawling out of his ears. "Baka-Shinji! If we're that far from a town, it's probable one of them!"

The Third Child's resolve, surprisingly, held firm. "But….isn't that just a good reason we should go back with them? Do you really want to walk 60 miles in the middle of nowhere, this late at night?" When Asuka didn't answer, Shinji turned his attention away from the frozen road over their heads and glanced at the silent girl beside him. She was looking straight ahead, mouth hanging open, eyes wide with shock and fear.

"_MEIN GOTT_, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!"

Shinji followed her line of sight, suddenly finding himself face to face with the monstrous head of some sort of….creature. Its hot breath hung heavy in the air as it was exhaled like smoke into Shinji's face. It was some sort of four-legged beast, standing nearly seven feet tall at the shoulders, and had an enormous rack of scoop-like antlers nearly five feet wide. Try as he might, Shinji was unable to answer Asuka's question. He had never seen anything like it in his entire life. That seemed to be happening a lot today….

Luckily, or rather _un_luckily, the answer to Asuka's horrified query came from another source, somewhere in the darkness above them on the road.

"That_ THING_ is a North American Bull Moose."

"Is it dangerous!" Asuka was too terrified by the lumbering alien before her to care too much about having been caught.

"Oh, yeah….damn thing will gut you like a fish if you make any sudden movements…" While Shinji had detected the sarcasm and humor in the older woman's voice, a soft whimper from his side indicated that Asuka had not. Glancing at her out of the corner of his eye showed him that the redhead was indeed nearly out of her mind with fear. The combination of being in this impossible landscape, encountering this unknown beast, and almost dying had finally started to crack her already fractured shell.

The extreme global warming effect resulting after Second Impact lead the two EVA pilots to have grown up in a world without the luxury of zoos, mostly due to the death of the majority of Earth's land based wildlife. And, due to more pressing issues and points of interest, their schools tended not to dwell too much on subjects as unnecessary or depressing as extinct zoology.

"FOR GOD'S SAKE, HELP US!" Asuka sounded as though she were nearing hysterics, fingers clawing frantically at the mossy floor of the forest as she scooted backwards.

"Well, alright. I'll see what I can do…." Elizabeth made a show of thinking for a bit, before cupping her hands around her mouth and shouting as loud as she could.

"SHOO! SHOO! BUG OFF, BULLWINKLE! NOBODY HERE'S INTERESTED IN WHAT YOU'RE PEDDLING!" The enormous creature shifted its unfocused gaze to the waving figure on the road above. It seemed to consider its choices for a bit, without really knowing what they were. Then it shifted its footing and turned around, lumbering off into the trees.

"There. I've saved your lives. Again." Elizabeth placed her hands on her hips and threw out her chest in a heroic stance as she watched the moose wander off at a leisurely pace, before returning her attention to the pair that was currently cowering in the ditch below. "If you two keep close and share your body heat, you'd probably be able to spend the night in relative comfort out here, and there's plenty of clean water right back there in the lake for your refreshing morning shower. OR, you can come back with _me_, where we've got the only warm beds, hot food and running water within 58 miles. Your choice."

By voice alone, it was difficult to determine just how angry Elizabeth was. Shinji and Asuka glanced at each other, seemed to come to a silent agreement, and dejectedly stood up. Asuka started up the bank while Shinji stooped to pick up the blanket before following close behind. Asuka slipped near the top and would have sent both of them tumbling back down into the ditch, had she not been grasped firmly by a helping hand.

Now safely back on the side of the road, Liz's face was clearly visible, a small smile may have been her way of trying to reassure them that she wasn't _completely_ pissed off. She was wearing a leather motorcycle jacket to combat the cold, which they had been determined to brave without such preparations. "Still got all your fingers and toes? We can fix it if you don't, but it will be easier if you've stuck them in your pockets after they fell off." Asuka and Shinji kept their eyes downcast, favoring the view of the tires supporting the black jeep. Elizabeth took a step back and allowed them to go first. There was silence as they climbed up and in.

Not sure what to do with the blanket as Liz climbed back into the front, he offered it to Asuka. She looked at it for a little bit before accepting, wrapping herself in it with a bit more eagerness than she probably intended. She stared out the window as their driver turned the jeep around and started back the way they had come. Shinji turned his attention out his own window, wondering exactly what they had gotten themselves into, and whether or not they had greatly made matters worse. He was jolted out of his reverie when he felt Asuka move closer and wrap the blanket around him as well. Shinji looked at her questioningly, but she was careful to avoid his eyes. Despite this, her meaning was clear: they were in this together, like it or not.

"Do you guys have my notebook?" The German Mecha pilot jumped slightly as their chauffeur put her on the spot.

For a split second, Asuka considered lying. Realizing it would only get them into more trouble, she hesitantly reached into her pocket and handed the leather-bound book up to the front. Their driver gratefully took it back, leaving Asuka visibly flinching as she waited for the verbal backlash. The lack of such an attack effectively struck her mute. Instead the driver reached into a jacket pocket and tossed something back into their seat: Misato's cross, landing squarely in Shinji's lap. "There. Fair trade."

The Third Child's shaking hand shot out from under the shared blanket, snatching up the lost artifact before it bounced to the floor, the treasured cross dissapearing into his closed fist before that hand likewise vanished beneath the wrapped blanket, pressing it to his chest. Protecting it even as it gave him strength. He mentally kicked himself for losing it...for not even NOTICING he'd lost it, the necklace snagging on the doorknob of the driver's bedroom and falling out of his pocket during their mad dash. For her credit Asuka stayed silent about his actions, even refraining from any of those little sounds of disgust that easily could have rolled forth.

After driving in that continued silence for a few moments, he took it upon himself to get to the bottom of a few things. "Who are you people? Are you with SEELE?"

Elizabeth's reply was as instantaneous as it was loud. "Hell no! Your bodies would be cold and sufficiently bullet ridden by now if we were working for those homicidal assholes…Besides, if we were with SEELE, do you think we would have taken the time to fix up your uncommonly quiet companion? Or bring you all the way here?" Their driver nodded over her shoulder towards Asuka, whose silence was in fact very much out of place.

The mysterious older woman searched for the right words before continuing. "No, we're what you could call….good Samaritans."

Asuka's unbroken silence prompted him to continue with this line of questioning singlehandedly. "Where are we? Where are you taking us?"

"You saw the highway signs, right? I'm sure some smart kids like you can put the pieces together, but I guess I should go into some specifics as to why we're driving to an underground cavern capable of surviving World War 3. Besides you two deserve a little back-story, since you've been such good sports about all this up until now. Not counting the sneaking around in my room OR the part where you made a run for it first chance you got, of course." Taking a deep breath, Elizabeth launched into the history of their hidden lair, trying not to sound too much like a tour guide but still failing in that goal.

"We're currently driving north and parallel with the coast of the Bering Sea. This highway was originally paved for the tanker trucks after filling up with crude from the northern oil fields and taking it south to the seaports. Since its construction, there have been enough expansions added to the pipeline to let this road see almost no use. It's in fairly good condition despite the long intervals between repairs, due partly to the extremely low level of use. But it's also because this pavement is constructed far stronger than any other road in the state. And you two may not have noticed it, but this two-mile stretch expands to four lanes while paved highways are a rarity this far north."

"This installation was built during the height of a nasty little conflict called the Cold War. I don't know how much history you kids learned when it doesn't pertain to Second Impact, and you're probably more familiar with wars waged against giant monsters, but there were a few decades before the dawn of the 21st century where the US of A and the then USSR were racing to see who could most efficiently wipe out all life on the planet Earth."

"This bunker is situated ideally in a remote area where planes could be dispatched and entering Russian airspace within the hour. Among the many accommodations and facilities built into the reinforced bunker, the largest by far was the spacious hanger capable of housing an entire squadron of tactical bombers. During a time of crisis which had never come, the aircraft would roll up the concealed ramp before using the two miles of straight highway as a takeoff and landing strip. They could simply pop up out of the ground, the base remaining invisible to Russian spy satellites, and the Commies would be none the wiser. Well, they might catch on the second time the planes popped out of nowhere, but since this was all in preparation for a nuclear holocaust, that one initial surprise was the one that mattered."

"After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the high costs of manning and maintaining the installation proved themselves to be nearly without benefit, leading to its decommission and abandonment in the Spring of 1993. In one of the government's rare periods of financial insight, it was determined that such a costly piece of property as this, now made useless by both the removal of a credible threat and the existence of a far more maintainable base not 200 miles away, would be more beneficial if sold as real-estate. So, the corporation that was hired to design and construct the bunker bought this lovely little hole in the ground. And being….well, I suppose you could call us 'employees' of that corporation, we were in a prime position to move in and make use of it first chance we got."

Shinji assumed the corporation their driver referred to was that Hanso Foundation he and Asuka had seen engraved upon the wall of the hangar. The explanation he'd just been given had in fact answered quite a few questions, even though there were far more left unanswered.

But the absurdity of the story seemed to be too much for Asuka to sit back in silence. She spoke up for the first time in minutes, though her voice was still small and shaky. "Alaska? We're really in Alaska?" Elizabeth's affirmative nod was enough to keep her from speaking up again as she tried to lick her mental wounds.

"But, what about the lights in the sky?" Shinji was grasping at straws, trying to stick up for his redheaded companion.

"What do you think they are?" Liz kept her eyes forward, focusing on the dark road ahead while her passengers continued to struggle with their newfound knowledge.

"Well, we-"Shinji caught himself, fearing another punch should he fail to give credit where credit was due. "I mean, Asuka, thinks it's the Northern Lights." Elizabeth looked at the redhead with a new sense of admiration. Asuka, meanwhile, kept her mouth tightly shut.

"Very good. That's exactly what they are." Elizabeth started to fiddle with something on the dashboard, a small boxy object that Shinji recognized from the first time they entered the subterranean cavern. She was apparently too busy to notice that her praise had been unappreciated. Asuka remained silent, lips quivering, so Shinji pressed forward hesitantly, creeping across thin ice.

"But….Second Impact….that's impossible…." It looked like their driver was doing her best not to smile at their confusion. Shinji was shocked into the same level of silence Asuka had previously entered with Liz's next statement.

"In your world, yes." In any other situation the following pause would have presumably been for dramatization. But at that moment the section of road before them split open again and Liz cautiously descended back into the hidden tunnel. She continued her explanation once the pavement closed up behind and overhead.

"This is a world that has never seen the Angels. A world where the polar icecaps have yet to melt, where Japan is not almost completely underwater, and where the majority of Earth's population have not been killed off by a single cataclysmic event. Quite simply, we've brought you to a world in which Second Impact has not, and WILL not, take place."

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Despite the number of individuals relaxing in the spring, it was far from crowded due to its impressive size. For the most part, the pool was only three or four feet deep, with ledges built all along the rock walls where the bathers could sit comfortably in the steaming water.

Retsu Unohana, the caring, soft-spoken, and polite Captain of Squad 4, sat serenely with her long black braid draped around her neck and floating on the smooth surface of the pool, eyes closed and doing a masterful job of relaxation despite the ruckus surrounding her. Patients trying to leave the medical care of the 4th Division without being discharged may have been terrified by her presence, but no such effect was currently having an influence on the rowdy bunch nearby. Her lieutenant, Isane Kotetsu, sat to the left of her captain, watching the scene with a mixture of distaste and longing, simultaneously wishing the hard-drinking duo across from them would calm down, and at the same time that she could go join them.

"Don't be so reserved, Isane-san. Go have a drink if you'd like one." Unohana remained perfectly still, eyes remaining closed as she addressed her subordinate.

"Oh, no Captain. I'm fine, really." The white-haired Shinigami respected her Captain far too much to partake in such behavior in her presence.

"You're sure?" A frantic nod of the head was her response. Unohana smiled inwardly, wishing her motherly persona weren't quite so inhibitive. "Well, I wouldn't mind a drink myself….be a dear and see if they'll lend us a bottle, would you?" Isane visibly brightened at this, nodding her compliance as she crossed over to where the others were sitting.

Tiffany led Matsumoto and her daughter Sarah to where the new arrival sat. The young woman was reclining lazily in the pool, her left arm draped over the shoulders of Yoruichi to her left, while her right hand waved a bottle of Sake drunkenly in the air. Yoruichi's right arm was likewise wrapped around her new drinking buddy, whom just so happened to have the same hair color. To the left of the feline shape shifter, Soifon sat with her knees against her chest, arms wrapped around her legs as she tried to watch her best friend and sworn protected without getting any indecent ideas, still grappling with just what her feelings towards the former princess were.

The slightly panicking Lieutenant glanced over at Sarah, who gave her a simple affirmative nod that the woman wrapped around Yoruichi was in fact Misato Katsuragi, the person she had come all this way for. Rangiku quickly disrobed and stepped into the heated pool, but made no further move while she contemplated what she was about to do. She turned once more, trying to stall a bit, but Sarah had already left, following a little ways behind her mother while Tiffany went about her duties as Hostess of the hot springs.

Matsumoto reached for the hilt of her zanpakutō, missed, then grasped for it again before realizing she wasn't wearing it. Or anything else, for that matter. 'Crap…' she thought to herself. 'Maybe my wardrobe COULD be a little more conservative…' Although it was freeing to be dressed in a manner that felt like she was wearing nothing at all, even SHE had to admit that there may be a problem if she couldn't discern between the two. 'Ah, screw it…' she told herself. She had way too much on her plate right now, what with being moments away from carrying out actions that would easily call for her execution should the wrong people know about it.

Collecting her weapon from where her clothing had been deposited, she motioned Yoruichi over from her side of the tub. If there was _anyone_ in the Soul Society who wouldn't mind bending the rules a bit, it had to be the dark-skinned woman in question. Yoruichi raised an eyebrow, shrugged, and departed from the 'protection' of her former bodyguard. She swam over, her smooth, sleek movements displaying all of her usual feline grace as she slipped through the water. Rangiku couldn't help but notice Soifon staring at Yoruichi's ass as she swam.

As the sultry woman slipped up alongside her, Matsumoto wasted no time in pulling her even closer so that she could share the details of her situation in private.

The sight of two of the most well endowed women in all of the Seireitei sharing such close proximity, _nude_ no less, had Soifon's head spinning as she tried to smother the errant thoughts that were _far_ too inappropriate for her to dwell on.

Rangiku spoke hurriedly and in hushed tones as she tried her best to outline her situation without giving away anything too terribly damning. For her part, Yoruichi kept quiet and gave her undivided attention, only giving away her sense of shock and surprise with her eyes. After a short period of time Matsumoto was finished, having left out a few minor details. These were ignored as her new cohort questioned her on a more pressing issue.

"You DO know a Soul Expulsion will only kick her out of the Seireitei, right?" This was perhaps the biggest snag in the blonde Soul Reaper's Frankenstein plan: the danger of simply banishing Yoruichi's new drinking buddy to the limbo of Hueco Mundo.

"True, but if another Shinigami were to help me channel the spell, she SHOULD be forced back into her original body. Right?" Matsumoto's voice wavered, revealing how unsure she really was about the whole plan.

"Hypothetically. No one has ever tried this before. It's incredibly uncertain and illegal." A sly grin crept across the shape shifting princess's face. "And I can take a wild guess as to whose help you want with this little stunt…."

"It would really, REALLY mean a lot to me Yoruichi…." That was certainly an understatement. The embodiment of her nightmares had taken on the form of a pleasant looking young woman, waltzed into her office, and threw perhaps the biggest mistake she'd ever made square into her face.

"But you can't tell me any of the specifics regarding WHY you need help doing something that breaks every rule of the Shinigami's code, and could easily result in your dying again?" A simple shake of the head was her reply. Yoruichi thought for a little bit, smirking at how nervous the other woman seemed as she twisted her hands about the grip of her zanpakutō. After a few moments she shrugged.

"Hey, what the hell? It's not like I've got too much at stake considering my track record. Besides, it could prove useful to have something so juicy hanging over your pretty little head." Yoruichi gave Rangiku a playful wink before she was able to respond to the implied threat of retribution, then slipped back between the heavily inebriated Misato and the slightly confused looking Soifon. "Well Misato, it looks like it's time to go."

"Go! What are you talking about? The party's just getting started!" The color in her face and slight slur in her voice suggested she was used to drinking something a little weaker than sake.

"We've got a huge hot tub, half a dozen lovely ladies in the buff, and enough liquor to float ANYONE's boat! And you know what that means!" Everyone looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to finish while she paused, tilting back the bottle and taking another healthy swig.

"H! L! A!" Misato pumped her fist into the air with the exclamation of each syllable. Soifon sank into the water nearly up to her eyeballs, hoping to hide her spreading blush. Isane coughed and spluttered, the shock of the newcomer's outburst more to blame than the strength of the alcohol. Eyes watering, she had nearly regained her composure when her Captain leaned over and whispered into her ear.

"What does HLA mean?" Unohana questioned her Lieutenant. Rather than try to answer, Isane followed Soifon's example in an attempt to hide her flush of embarrassment. Matsumoto glanced over at Yoruichi, whose blush was even darker than her own. But that may have been because of her skin tone, because for the briefest of seconds, Rangiku could have _sworn_ Yoruichi was honestly considering Misato's proposition.

Yoruichi slid up behind Misato and placed her left hand against the small of her back. Her right hand likewise snaked around to her front and took its place over her heart, covering the scar. Closing her eyes and reciting a long-forgotten chant, Yoruichi placed all her focus upon the task quite literally at hand. Or at least as much focus as she could muster given Misato's response of leaning back into the embrace.

"Well, SOMEONE is up for my orgy idea!" The intoxicated woman glanced over her shoulder, grinning wide. "What do you say Kitten? You want tops or bottoms?"

Yoruichi continued to chant despite the smirk creeping across her face. As Rangiku placed the hilt of her sword to Misato's forehead, the other woman crossed her eyes while trying to make out the glowing symbols on the butt of the handle.

Misato bolted upright as her whole body began to glow. In mere seconds her body had become enveloped by the eerie glow. And a second after that, she had vanished, forced from the Soul Society and presumably back into the land of the living. The warm waters of the pool rushed slightly around the two Shinigami as they quickly filled the void that had just been occupied by another bather.

Matsumoto spied Unohana out of the corner of her eye. The deed was done, now she had to deal with the consequences. The motherly Captain had seen everything, as evident by the way her eyes were following her across the pool, slight confusion visible on her otherwise calm face. She didn't look in the least like someone who had just witnessed a subordinate carrying out an action punishable by execution. Rangiku had lost count of how many times she had sworn to herself at this point, and things were only about to get worse.

"Was there a problem, Rangiku-san? While that young lady may have been a little rough around the edges, I don't think you needed to take such drastic measures to deal with her." There was no malice in her tone. There was NEVER any malice in Unohana's tone. Matsumoto almost thought that made it worse. She was about to stutter a reply, although she wasn't exactly sure what, when Yoruichi came to her rescue.

"No problem at all, Captain Unohana!" Yoruichi shook her head emphatically, letting on that even she was a little intimidated by the soft-spoken Captain. "There was just a little confusion over when exactly Ms. Katsuragi was supposed to be here."

"But she _will_ be coming back here when her time comes, correct?" Yoruichi and Rangiku nodded enthusiastically, looking very much like two children caught helping each other to reach the cookie jar. Nevertheless, their affirmation brought a genuine smile to the older woman's face. "I'm very glad to hear it. While I haven't known her for very long, I've already grown fond of Misato-san's company."

Matsumoto couldn't believe it. She was getting off scot-free. Isane looked like she had some questions she wanted to ask, but her Captain's lack of curiosity proved contagious. Yoruichi nudged Rangiku's shoulder knowingly before sitting back down next to Soifon, who almost looked disappointed that there would be no Hot Lesbian Action.

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The trio walked in silence down the main hallway from the hanger, Asuka and Shinji still seeming to have trouble accepting what Elizabeth had told them. There wasn't too much point in keeping an eye on her captives since it was obvious they weren't gonna make another run for it. She stepped past them, leading the two quiet teenagers to the REC room at the end of the hall. There was a soft chime as she pressed the button to the right of the doorway, the stainless steel panel sliding into a recession in the wall.

Gabby was sprawled out on the central couch, her feet propped up on the armrest as she gave her undivided attention to the wall-mounted television screen. She was wearing the plush Godzilla claw slippers she had received last Christmas.

"About time you got back! You're missing Creature Feature."

"What's on? Earth vs. Soup?" Liz took off her coat and hung it on the wall, somewhat unconcerned with her sister's answer.

"No, that's still in production hell. The studio keeps trying to screw over its writer….Art someone, I think. Nope, tonight the feature presentation is…" Gabby paused for dramatic effect. "Night of the Lepus." Her oldest sister stood frozen in place, staring at her, mouth slightly agape.

"NO FUCKING WAY! Holy crap, I haven't seen that since the drive-in at Rapid City..." Liz raced across the room, abandoning any and all semblance of a responsible adult as she vaulted over the back of the sofa, Gabby barely pulling her legs out of the way before her sister's rear landed in their place.

Shinji glanced at the television screen where, near as he could tell, a man was being killed by a giant rabbit, its fur soaked with blood.

Asuka and Shinji stood in confusion, seemingly forgotten by their captors for the time being. The thought of attempting escape once again was quickly quelled by the immediate memories of embarrassing failure that went hand in hand with their previous attempt. The two young women on the couch watched in silence for a few minutes, sharing Gabby's bowl of popcorn, before she decided to criticize her oldest sister about something new.

"I can't believe you actually like this shit…."

"Blasphemy! How dare you scoff at such a fine performance by Dr. McCoy from the original Star Trek! Besides, you expect me to respect the opinion of someone who actually liked The Prophecy?"

"You make it sound like there's such a thing as a bad Christopher Walken flick."

"No, not that one: the environmental horror movie about the mutant bear without any skin."

"Oh, that one….well, of course I loved it! It was the first documented sighting of Man-Bear-Pig. Not to mention the finest sleeping bag-related death in cinema history."

"Well, just don't hog the remote. Maybe you can put on some Bob Ross and help these kids relax." Elizabeth climbed up off the couch and spoke to Asuka and Shinji as she started towards the door. "Anything you two wanna watch?"

Neither of the EVA pilots seemed to have a preference, and it took a little coaxing on her own part before getting them to take a seat. The both sank into the same plush sofa, as far away from Gabby as possible. The pair also seemed to be sharing the same inner turmoil: not liking each other nearly enough to be sitting so close, but also uncomfortable enough in their new surroundings to not want to leave the other's familiar company.

Liz first went to her room and picked out an assortment of new clothing before heading to the Nanite Chamber for her occasional check in. While the tiny robots would usually follow directions to the letter, she still didn't trust them enough to ignore the possibility of the little buggers embarking on some grandiose project that would release energy signatures strong enough to be seen from space.

Liz set the bundle of clothing down on the counter top as the door swished closed behind her. As she turned to activate the main monitor she was halted in midstride by a foreign sound in the isolated little room. By the time she had diverted her attention to the prone form lying on the central dais, two things became evident.

One: the sound she had just heard had been someone yawning.

And Two: the prone form on the table was no longer prone.

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Sarah had watched the whole scene whilst peeking around the doorway of the employee's only backroom. The bright flash signaled that she had carried out her job here. Her Mom continued to fold fresh towels behind her. She had known that this was coming. They hadn't seen each other in over a decade. And they hadn't spoken a word to each other since the awkward greeting in front of Matsumoto. It was both a relief and a nightmare when the tense silence was finally broken.

"Do you blame me for what I did?" The unexpected question caught her off guard, and Sarah honestly had to think for a bit before she could answer.

"Sometimes….we all miss you Mom. But we understand why you did it. And after today, none of us can wonder whether or not you knew what you were doing." Tiffany started to chuckle at this.

"Hell, I didn't know what I was doing. I panicked. It was the first thing I could think of, and since that day I realized the only way it could prove useful was if one of you died. Looks like I was wrong about that one too."

"So, this isn't exactly how you'd planned for us to use your little gift, is it?" Sarah was a little shocked. True, it had been a long time since they'd spoken, but she could NEVER remember a time when her Mom seemed hesitant or unsure in her actions. Such was the infallible Mother in her child's eyes, apparently….

"No, it's not….but I did what I did because I wanted to help you. And if you think this will help, then I wish the best of luck to you." Tiffany finished with the towels and started to rearrange some bottles of sake. "Besides, have you talked to Major Katsuragi yet? She may have a few problems, but she's a good person. This is a very nice thing you're doing for her. For all of them."

"It won't matter if we fail, Mom."

"Don't talk like that….there's nothing that can be done in that case, so only focus on succeeding. I know you girls can do it."

"You give us far too much credit. Elizabeth is trying her best to fill your shoes….I want to help her more, but she's still so worried about this damn thing inside my head."

"You've been taking your medicine?" It was in the same tone a Mother used when making sure her child had taken their asthma medication. Very few mothers would have been able to handle the sheer repercussions of a child consuming...that. Then again, Rosemary still loved her baby.

"Gawd, you make it sound like it's purely mental….schizophrenia would be a joy compared to what I'm dealing with."

"It's okay honey. Everything's going to be alright." A chill ran down Sarah's spine, as she tried to determine whether or not she had heard correctly. For years, her condition had been the source of nothing but worry and strife to herself and her sisters. NEVER had anyone ever said 'it'll all be okay' when referring to her ailment. She was struggling to keep from crying at this point, her vision already blurring.

"I know it's unfair of me to ask of you to do something this big. I'm sorry it fell to the three of you. You all deserved so much more." Sarah didn't like hearing her Mom talk like that. It was all she could do to contain herself, but she also knew she had to come out with what was bothering her most.

"If we don't win this thing….none of us will ever see you again." Sarah was sobbing openly now, the lenses of her glasses streaked with tears. Suddenly her vision was cut off completely, as she was unable to see anything but soft brown hair, faintly smelling of lavender. She had nearly forgotten how awesome her Mom's hugs could be. She had remembered her Mother being a little bit taller, though. And now that she was welcomed so readily into a comfort she had forgotten a long time ago, all of her defenses failed. Sarah wept without restraint, letting loose with what she had been keeping inside for so many years. "We never even got the chance to say goodbye…."

"I know honey….I'm so sorry. A day doesn't go by when I don't think about you three. But it seemed like the best possible way to help you do what needs to be done." Tiffany rubbed her daughters back as she spoke. "There's a long road ahead, and it pains me that I won't be able to walk it with you. But you're finding help. And you're making sure you can help them along the way too. You girls are going to do something great. And even though you may not see me, I'm gonna be there when it happens."

Sarah just stood there shaking, smiling through the tears. Her Mom always knew what to say to make her feel better. And no matter what she said, Sarah always knew she could believe her. Her Mom could even give her bad news and take the sting out of it.

"But you also know you can't stay here much longer. Lieutenant Matsumoto's done so much for us already; I'd hate to get her into trouble."

"I know Mom. You're right. You've always been right."

"Nope, I'm just lucky. I have some cookies for your trip back. Just be sure to save some for your sisters." It was absurd to think all of her cares would just go away with the help of her Mother's homemade chocolate chip cookies. They WOULD, of course. But still, it was absurd for anybody who'd never tried them.

"I love you Mom."

"I love you too Sarah."

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Misato Katsuragi slowly opened her eyes, bracing herself for the pounding headache that should accompany any hangover. When the pounding in her skull failed to manifest itself, she took a few moments to try and go over the events that lead to her being in this position. Namely, naked and lying on a metal table. Not that that in and of itself was too out of the ordinary for her….

After a long and experienced history of drinking to excess, Misato found that it was easiest to recall past events of an inebriated state if she worked backwards. So let's see….last things first: She woke up on a metal table, wearing nothing but her extremely stylish birthday suit, and staring up at a ceiling she couldn't quite recognize. The most recent thing she could remember happening before that was her sitting in a hot spring, accompanied by half a dozen other young women, sans clothing, and no short supply of alcohol.

The shortest of the women present, the one who seemed to be the acting hostess, wore glasses and had curly brown hair. The woman had spoken only a few words when Misato began to marvel at how much she sounded like Asuka. The woman next to her who shared her hair color had been the one to bring her to this place, and their competitive drinking was just about to get interested. Misato blushed at the memory of suggesting new activities for the women in the bath to try.

Her heart began to pound as certain other events came into focus….she had been at NERV….SEELE troopers were going after Shinji….she had been….

Misato lurched up into a sitting position, feeling frantically for the bullet wound, running her hands over the place she had been shot. Nothing. Smooth, unmarked, flawless skin. Supporting herself with one hand, she absentmindedly let her fingers search while she tried to overcome the wave of dizziness from sitting up to fast. Then she felt something. Or rather, she _didn't_ feel something. Slowly, her fingers traced back and forth below her breasts, searching for the scar. Cautiously, she glanced down at her own body. It only took a few seconds to reach the conclusion that it was NOT her body.

A figure appeared in her peripheral vision, quickly dissolving into a recognizable being: a tall girl with short dirty blonde hair. The girl she had seen in the hallway back at NERV….the last face she had seen before she died.

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"Rangiku, what's this '_deal'_ she kept talking about?" Rukia posed this question from the leftmost leg of the semicircle made up of Toshiro, Chad, Orihime and herself. Matsumoto had returned to the group waiting outside the Hot Spring as soon as the Soul Expulsion was completed. Sarah had yet to return however, so it was time to answer a few questions she'd really rather not.

"Well, a few years ago, I went over to the other side to bring back some souls. Normally we don't make special trips for souls, mostly because they're so hard to find and happen in such frequency that we'd need way more Shinigami employed in the real world constantly." She paused for a few seconds, but when no one said anything Matsumoto continued.

"The main exception is when a large group of people die at the exact same time and place. Then we'll bring them to the Soul Society flat-out, if for no other reason than to make our jobs easier and keep them from turning into Hollows." Rangiku took a deep breath, closing her eyes as she remembered something from the past.

"There were a lot of them that time. There was some sort of battle. The Gates of Hell had already been opened, and by the time I got down to your world there were only a third or so left. The girl's parents were there. Her Father was dead, and her Mother wasn't looking too good either. If she could get to a Doctor fast she may have been able to survive, but she had lost an arm and would probably never walk again." She cringed slightly, not liking to remember Tiffany in that state, especially given the circumstances.

"She could see me. Probably because of all the death she'd been around. Maybe it was because she was so close to death herself? She had been watching me work and was able to figure out what I was. She said she wanted to make a deal with me." Matsumoto glanced around at the group, and as the attentive looks prompted her on she took the final plunge and revealed what she had involved her Captain and herself with.

"She said that she would go with me then, before her time, and in exchange one of her daughters would get a free pass. She kept talking about some job they had to do, and that one or more would likely be killed trying to do it. If that happened, she was willing to trade her own soul on their behalf, and the one who died would get a second chance. But only once." The blonde Soul Reaper was seemingly finished, hoping she had nothing more to explain. But Orihime pushed further, leaving nothing to uncertainty.

"…So, what did you do?" Matsumoto's reply was silence, coupled with a downward casting of her eyes.

"You AGREED! How could you think something like that would be okay?" Rukia didn't care too much for Rangiku's seniority at that moment, and was actually the reason she was so shocked: someone who had been doing this job for longer than she had should have known better. But the other woman's answer was both believable and slightly expected.

"Well, I was REALLY drunk at the time.…" This brought on a wave of silence, no one really knowing what to say. The lull in conversation was then broken by the most unlikely member of the party.

"But they were going to kill Rukia, and she had only asked for Ichigo's help when she was wounded." Chad's calm and stoic demeanor sometimes led people to believe he wasn't listening, but he occasionally caught everyone off guard with a well-placed statement or question.

"Well, yeah, but Aizen and his subordinates had a heavy hand in that. Toshiro, Tiffer and I are the only three who know that she's not really supposed to be here. My Captain did a marvelous job of covering my ass. I just had to do….something, in return." Chad studied her curvaceous frame out of the corner of his eye. He had a pretty good idea what that 'something' was….But Orihime. Sweet, innocent, naïve little Orihime….

"What did you have to do?" Rangiku looked down in embarrassment. The expression on her face was enough to reveal what kind of agreement may have been reached. But when she finally DID answer, her response was far less raunchy than was to be expected.

"Three years of completing my paperwork on time, and I had to dress formally…." Toshiro crossed his arms, still standing by his decision.

"It was high time you covered those things. It was much easier to get some work done in the office." His Lieutenant however was still fairly sore regarding the subject.

"I COULDN'T BREATHE! Having to strap the girls down every day was nearly a death sentence!" Matsumoto placed both hands beneath her ample breasts, hefting them with just the smallest amount of difficulty and bouncing them to give her statement emphasis.

"But why is she here in the Seireitei? Is she being kept as a prisoner?" Rukia paid no attention to Rangiku's display, instead trying to discern what was being told to her. She had seen the woman around, but couldn't believe there was such a story behind her being here, nor that Captain Toshiro would be a part of something like this.

"Not quite….." Toshiro and Rangiku glanced at each other hesitantly. They were suddenly very much aware of how bad it sounded to be breaking nearly every rule they came across.

"Well, she wanted to be kept in the loop and be easy to find should…." Rangiku motioned towards the bathhouse. "Should one of her daughters show up. And likewise, Toshiro wanted to be able to keep an eye on her. So, we got her accepted into Squad 4. Unohana didn't ask very many questions, and was pretty grateful to have her around. She's an excellent hostess, and knows how to get along with pretty much everybody." The way the blonde Lieutenant spoke of her guest let on just how highly she thought of the woman, despite the dangerous predicament she'd been forced into on her behalf.

"So their Mom set up an insurance policy for them? Who's this other woman they used it on?" Orihime could understand loving someone so much that she would give their life for them, but from the sound of it Sarah almost didn't even know the dark-haired girl.

"Someone whose help I desperately need." Sarah stood in the doorway, a paper bag with a heart drawn on it in one hand, a few envelopes held tightly in the other. It was unknown how much she had heard, but she didn't seem to care regardless. "Well, I'm ready. Let's go see if Ichigo is still alive and get the hell out of here."

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Elizabeth entered the common room to find Shinji and Asuka sitting quietly on one of the sofas, as close as they could get without actually touching each other: each was taking refuge in the other's company as best they could while still avoiding any form of intimacy or friendship with which they were still at odds. Shinji still had Misato's cross clutched tightly in his closed fist, the necklace wrapped around his hand like knuckle tape. It didn't look like he'd stopped squeezing it since she'd given it back in the jeep.

Gabby was busying herself with setting four places at a heavy wooden table in a corner of the room, beneath a wall mounted oil lamp. There were certain little aesthetic touches that helped the inhabitants forget that they lived underground.

"Hey, Gabby? Go ahead and set a fifth place at the table, would you?"

The girl who walked in did so with a slight stumble, as if she were half asleep.

Shinji and Asuka were doing their best to keep from freaking out, the revelation of their current location in the universe proving a little too much for them to handle. The presence of this new guest was simply too much to comprehend.

The woman certainly _looked_ like Misato, and for a brief second the Evangelion pilots wondered whether or not she had a younger sister.

Her eyes lit up when they fell upon Shinji, and she started forward at a brisk pace. Shinji took a step back, fearing a repeat of the last time someone he thought he had lost entered the room and made their way straight for him. He wasn't fast enough; they were still three feet apart when his attacker lunged through the air. Shinji found himself trapped in a bear hug, as something warm and wet forced its way into his mouth.

Elizabeth and Gabby were watching from the couch, trying their hardest not to laugh. Asuka was standing in the exact same place she had been since the newcomer walked in, her mouth slightly agape.

The woman kept kissing him until she came up gasping for breath, just enough time for the Third Child to decide that this method of attack wasn't entirely unpleasant.

It wasn't entirely unfamiliar either, and as the very young dark-haired woman drew back and whispered in his ear, Shinji Ikari was suddenly made aware of where he'd experienced an Adult Kiss like that before.

"You didn't think I'd forgotten about my promise, did you Shinji?" The young woman whispered into his ear, her soft breath giving him goose bumps.

"….Mi-Misato? Is it really you?" It couldn't be, of course. It was probably just another twisted dream. Things like this didn't happen to Shinji when he lost someone he cared about. The apparition however was adamant.

"In the flesh babe. As you'll find out soon enough…." A chill ran down the Third Child's spine as he realized it WAS Misato….even a manifestation of his imagination would fail to be that flirtatious or straightforward.

"Alright kids, now that Ms. Katsuragi's here to provide the T&A, everybody pull up a chair and let's have some Q&A." Gabby leapt over the back of a sofa, landing on her side and propping her boots up on an armrest.

Elizabeth ignored her sister's behavior; she had already put her shield back up. The compassionate, concerned, and loving little sister from a few hours before was gone. Of course, these people weren't part of her circle yet, and may never be. She only showed that side to her family.

"So what's this all about? What the hell did you guys do to Misato, and what's with telling Shinji you want us to save the world?" The youngest sister answered Asuka's question, slightly relieved that the flamboyant and noisy redhead was recovering to her old self again, albeit little by little.

"As to your first question, we did to Misato the exact same thing to you: reconstructive surgery. A far-more advanced and less-timely method than anything you're familiar with, but basically the same thing. As to saving the world….." Gabby glanced in her sister's direction, causing Elizabeth to quickly look away. "I'm afraid that description was fairly inaccurate and a blunder on my oldest sister's behalf. She has a problem with deciding when to downplay the severity of something." Shinji let out a sigh of relief. First he gets Asuka back, then Misato. Now he finds out that not as much is resting on his shoulders as he'd previously thought. Add in the fact that they were no longer being hunted by SEELE, and this was turning out to be perhaps the best day of his entire life.

But then Gabby continued. "She really should know better than to sugarcoat things. Especially with her earlier statement, in which she made the current situation seem far less important than it really is."

Shinji did a double take, praying he had misunderstood. "Wait….you need us to help you do something _more_ than save the world?" Gabby looked him in the eyes. Or he assumed that's where she was looking. It was hard to tell with those weird goggles.

"The truth of the matter is, we need your help to save Existence."

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Brownie points to anyone who can recognize the true identity of Elizabeth, Sarah, and Gabriella's Mother. It shouldn't be too hard, seeing as I almost flat-out TOLD you guys. But she may be unfamiliar to people who have never met her in person. I know there are rules against including celebrities and nonfictional persons, but since it's not really HER outside of name and visual likeness, I hope my homage will be allowed.

Alright people, here's the deal: the next chapter is virtually DONE.

It will contain the majority of the plot, answering a lot of the questions I've left you readers with and showing how I plan to tie together most of the franchises I've included in this crossover. It may be absurd, parts may be corny, but screw it, it's my story and I'll write it however the hell I want.

After that, you'll all have enough information to know whether or not this story is something you'll want to keep following, or if it's just too far out there.

See ya soon.


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